ALBUQUERQUE–A local private investigator says he was contacted by a man recruiting on behalf of the Republican National Committee, looking for private investigators to advise poll challengers on election day. The investigator, David O’Niell, says he’s worried that RNC may be using private investigators to help with so-called vote caging, a method of vote suppression.

Vote caging is a technique involving one person, group or political party that uses returned mail, home foreclosure lists, Social Security databases or other methods to identify groups of voters and prevent them from voting.

The recruiter is Todd Stefan from SETEC Investigations, a California security company. “I was told to see if there were some individuals, people with investigative experience, IT [information technology] experience… to advise attorneys and make sure that everything goes smoothly,” Stefan told the Independent in a phone interview Friday.

Stefan declined to say whether he was recruiting on behalf of RNC, saying, “I don’t fully know who’s involved. This is something that, I’ll be honest, I’m a little bit skittish about.” Stefan then said he knew that there was concern in New Mexico that private investigators were being used in election issues.

“We are very troubled to hear this information and we think it raises serious questions about programs that the RNC is running,” said Jenny Backus of the Obama campaign.

A call to the Republican National Committee was not returned; a spokeswoman from the Republican Party of New Mexico would not comment on the charges.

Two other private investigators contacted by the Independent said they had not received calls similar to the one O’Niell got, asking for help on Election Day.

“We wouldn’t even take that case if they asked us,” said one P.I., a former law enforcement officer who has been a private investigator for six years, but like most NMI contacted didn’t want his name disclosed. “There’s a wide spectrum of stuff that investigators can do, but that’s nothing we would do. Whoever gets elected gets elected,” he said.

Another, a retired APD officer who’s been a private investigator for 14 years, said he’d never been asked to do that kind of work. “I’m a registered independent and I think any investigator should be independent if he’s doing his job,” he said.

Vote challengers from each party will be present in many precincts on election day. In New Mexico, challengers may challenge voters if they are not legally registered, their names are on the “purged” list, they are listed as having received absentee ballots or if they are not “qualified” electors. A qualified elector is someone who is not eligible to vote in New Mexico because, for example, he or she is not a U.S. citizen.

O’Niell said he believes he was contacted because his Web site touts his more than 20 years of experience as a federal law enforcement agent.

Law enforcement has increasingly been used in voter suppression efforts according to Project Vote, an organization that worked with ACLU to bring a lawsuit against GOP attorney Pat Rogers and private investigator Al Romero here this week. According to a press release from Project Vote on Friday:

“Partisan forces have manufactured hysteria around the myth of ‘voter fraud’ that they have used to help goad law-enforcement into intimidation and politically motivated investigations into eligible voters. As the election approaches, Project Vote and other voting rights organizations are seeing law enforcement officials inserting themselves into election administration, and partisan pressure to coerce law enforcement agents into overreaching investigations into the eligibility of legal voters.”

The recent actions of GOP state Rep. Justine Fox-Young, Rogers and Romero, and the resulting lawsuits by ACLU and MALDEF, figure prominently in Project Vote’s allegations.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico recently filed a lawsuit against Fox-Young, saying she released confidential information while making claims of vote fraud. MALDEF filed a lawsuit against Rogers and Romero, accusing the two men of trying to intimidate voters.

Rogers has said he has done nothing wrong, while Fox-Young has called the lawsuits desperate.