Author: NY Post Editorial Board Link: NY Post (Full Article) Date Published: October 25th, 2008 Excerpt:
The folks over at ACORN - Barack Obama's favorite "community organizers" - now admit that more than 30 percent of the 1.3 million voter-registration forms they submitted this year were rejected by election officials nationwide.
So much for claims by the left that the issue is nothing to worry about. Never mind all those applications by Mickey Mouse and Jive Turkey.
ACORN says no more than "1 to 1.5 percent" involved actual fraud - which was committed, according to their friends at The New York Times, by "low-income field workers trying to please their supervisors." They were only following orders, you see . . .
Then again, yesterday's Times admits that ACORN-related voting fraud seems "to have resonated" - even among some Democrats and independents.
And with good reason.
Just a few days earlier, People for the American Way, the left-wing advocacy group, took out a full-page ad in the Times defending ACORN.
*** EMFK: Leave it to the NY Times to excuse ACORN's behavior, and the Times wonders why their subscriptions keep falling on a regular basis.
Author: FoxNews.com Link: FoxNews.com Date Published: October 22nd, 2008 Excerpt:
ACORN was drawing new scrutiny Wednesday after an internal memo surfaced that raised concerns about whether the low-income advocacy organization improperly used charitable dollars for political purposes. The memo, written by Washington lawyer Elizabeth Kingsley, delved into ACORN's relationship with Project Vote, a group Barack Obama worked with in Chicago in the mid-'90s.
The memo, according to a report in The New York Times, said the close ACORN-Project Vote ties make it impossible to determine whether Project Vote's funds were used only for non-partisan purposes, as the law requires. The two organizations work together on voter registration drives.
The memo also addressed concerns about money transfers among ACORN affiliates and potential conflicts caused by employees of multiple affiliates, and it gave a different account from the organization of the embezzlement of almost $1 million by the brother of ACORN's founder, according to the Times report.
Bertha Lewis, ACORN's top executive, told the Times the group is looking into the report and has "taken everything [Kingsley] said in the report very seriously."
ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson released a statement Wednesday saying the memo shows the organization was taking a responsible look at its own operation.
"Contrary to the implications of today's story, this internal report is an example of an organization and its board taking comprehensive steps to improve its governance and ensure that its work is conducted in accordance with all appropriate laws. Nowhere in the report is there any hint that our work was being conducted outside the letter of the law," he said.
ACORN is feeling the heat, and with Hollywood friends at their disposal, we present their video sob story.
The problem with this video, and any other type of propaganda, is the nonexistence of the many scandals, investigations, and misuse of federal money that are currently being brought to the attention of the American people.
ACORN, the victim, versus Republicans, the bullies, and anyone else that questions their legality in voter registration, securing housing loans, and misusing federal funds.
Our questions to ACORN that were not answered in this video:
Can you give us documented proof showing Republicans suppressing minority voters?
Can you give us documented proof ACORN legitimately registered legal and eligible American voters?
Can you give us documented proof the FBI raids on several ACORN offices across the country is political?
Can you give us documented proof and verification that your status as a non-profit and non-partisan organization matches up with the IRS definition of charitable organizations?
The United States government, and the American people, would be outraged if there was true evidence of voter suppression. However, since many of ACORN's "registered" voters don't exist or in some cases, have been registered to vote more than once---their cries of injustice fall on deaf ears.
The ghetto and thug mentality of ACORN volunteers shows they have little to no regard to the actual laws of this country. If anyone is taking advantage of minorities, it is ACORN.
See the following posts for examples here, here, and here. These are only a few of the examples cited on our blog these past few weeks.
The American people have the right to demand answers from ACORN and also have the right to demand investigations when laws are being broken or ignored to promote Barack Obama.
Author: Paul R. Hollrah Link: New Media Journal Date Published: October 20th, 2008 Excerpt:
Yes, from little ACORNS... Democrats grow. But it remains to be seen whether or not the American people are sufficiently outraged at efforts by the Obama campaign to steal the 2008 presidential election through outright fraud and vote-buying. The far left organization, ACORN, a former Obama client and a favorite Obama “charity,” is now under federal investigation in at least 13 states. After a recent raid on an ACORN office in Nevada, FBI agents found voter registration forms containing the names of the entire starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.
Author: ADAM NICHOLS and JEANE MacINTOSH Link: NY Post Date Published: October 20th, 2008 Excerpt:
Pushed to meet daily quotas and bullied by bosses if they didn't, Ohio ACORN workers faked voter registrations, signed up people more than once, and even paid off registrants to keep from being fired, its canvassers told The Post.
"Every day, there was pressure on us. Every single day," said Teshika Elder, a Cleveland single mom of three who worked for ACORN this summer.
"We had meetings every morning where they'd go over your quota; they'd yell at you if you were low," said Elder, 21. "They'd sit us down and say if you didn't do better, they'd suspend you. They'd say, 'Try harder next time,' [and] if you didn't get it, you'd be fired."
Desperate canvassers sometimes resorted to trading cigarettes, cash and food in exchange for registrations, according to Elder and two other former ACORN workers, Jaymes Sanford, 18, and Selvin Cunningham, 23.
Some voters were signed up more than once, and said that worried - or lazy - canvassers sometimes filled out bogus cards.
The three workers were all fired after they and a dozen other canvassers were identified in a Cuyahoga County Election Board probe as having turned in multiple registrations for the same voters.
Author: Matthew Vadum Link: Capital Research Date Published: October 16th, 2008 Excerpt:
ACORN doesn’t seem to have learned that if you’re going to lie, at least lie consistently.
The radical left-wing group, which has been arguing strenuously that Project Vote is a separate entity, posted a job listing at idealist.org for Project Vote. This demonstrates that the two organizations are virtually one and the same. In case the ad magically disappears, here is a screen grab of the top of it:
Description: Project Vote is seeking a Finance Director to join a dynamic management team leading the country’s premier nonpartisan civic engagement organization. Project Vote is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit corporation dedicated to expanding the electorate, particularly in low income and minority communities, and protecting Americans’ voting rights. Working closely with its community partner, ACORN, Project Vote has helped to register over 2.5 million voters since 2004. EMFK: Duh!
Author: Sher Zieve Link: Canada Free Press Date Published: October 16th, 2008 Excerpt:
To be filed under “suspicions confirmed,” patently partisan-for-Obama supporter Democrat Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer “I-never-met-an-ACORN-worker-I-didn’t-like” Brunner has stomped her feet and decided that she should not be required to do her job; that of protecting Ohio voters from election fraud. She has also decided that she will elicit help from the US Supreme Court in upholding her desire.
There are over 200,000 already identified flawed and fraudulent new registrations, which Brunner has not only personally refused to check but, has advised local registrars that they may not check, either. These are voter registrations that Brunner has admitted she has been “hiding” from local election boards. And whence did these registrations come? You got it—ACORN! Note: With this admission, one can only surmise that the 200,000 registrations were given to Brunner directly by ACORN. Brunner and Obama’s other adherents are now actively working to subvert the US democracy. Of course ACORN is also the group that—despite his attempts to hoodwink the public into believing otherwise—Democrat presidential candidate Obama has worked with and heavily funded for years and the group that is currently under federal investigation for voter fraud in between 12-15 states.
Author: Lara Jakes Jordan Link: Breitbart Date Published: October 16th, 2008 Excerpt:
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election.
A senior law enforcement official confirmed the investigation to The Associated Press on Thursday. A second senior law enforcement official says the FBI was looking at results of recent raids on ACORN offices in several states for any evidence of a coordinated national scam.
Author: ADAM NICHOLS in Cleveland and JEANE MacINTOSH Link: NY Post Date Published: October 15th, 2008 (Evening) Video is included at the site. Excerpt:
An Ohio man who cast an illegal early ballot after being caught registering to vote several times with ACORN is a longtime scammer who was arrested last year for fraud - as a woman.
The bizarre tale of Darnell Nash - a k a Serina "Sexy Slay" Gibbs - came to light after Cuyahoga County officials accused him of voter fraud and this week turned him/her in to prosecutors.
Author: Dick Morris & Eileen McGann Link: NewsMax Date Published: October 15th, 2008 Excerpt:
As Obama lengthens his lead, the Republicans are praying that the election becomes close enough for the Democrats to steal. But meanwhile, ACORN, the radical community group, is becoming an embarrassment for Obama.
It is not as if its shenanigans are likely to tip the result, with the Democrats so far ahead. But as it is raided by the FBI in state after state (11 so far), it is becoming identified as the electoral equivalent of Greenpeace, extremists who will stop at nothing to get their way.
What makes ACORN particularly embarrassing for Obama is that he used to be one of them. He served as general counsel for ACORN in Illinois, channeled millions to the organization from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (whose funds he distributed) and has lately spent $800,000 of his campaign money to subsidize the group's activities.
Author: Amanda Carpenter Link: Townhall Date Published: October 14th, 2008 Excerpt:
Members of the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now downplayed their group’s participation in voter registration fraud and argued fraudulent voter applications rarely corrupt the electoral process Tuesday.
One African-American ACORN official even suggested fraudulent registrations were a small price to pay for voting privileges that were paid for “in blood.”
“Thorough studies of voter fraud in the United States have been done and the universal conclusion of the studies that have been done by us and other people is that the actual incidence of the voters voting under a false name and attempting to register multiple times and to defraud the system is minimal purging on nonexistent,” said former Connecticut Secretary of State Miles Rapaport on ACORN’s behalf at a press conference in Washington.
***
ACORN endorsed Obama for president earlier this year and Obama was the first ever national candidate to contract ACORN workers for get-out-the-vote activities.
Obama has not responded to McCain’s calls to work together against voter fraud.
Author: Frank Pastore Link: Townhall Date Published: October 14th, 2008 Excerpt:
Frank Pastore from KKLA in Los Angeles interviews Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund.
Frank Pastore: ACORN is an acronym that stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. They are up to their eyeballs in voter fraud. When the subject of voter fraud is mentioned there is one expert in America that nearly everyone turns to and he is John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, and his book “Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud threatens Our Democracy….”
Give us an overview—a lay of the land….
John Fund: ACORN is the left-wing housing lobby that was at the heart of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. They pushed Congress, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and banks to put out loans to people who weren’t credit worthy, they helped tip this crisis into the disaster that we have now. And they are out registering voters, mostly for Barack Obama, and in 12 states there are investigations into their fraud. Las Vegas is the most kindly. The Attorney Generals office raided them yesterday took all of their computers and files. ACORN has responded by saying this is a stunt designed to discredit our efforts and bring back discriminatory voting practices. In reality what ACORN had done is they had hired supervisors to run this voter registration program who were former felons, including felons who had been put into prison for identity theft. ACORN is now hiring specialists to do their work apparently.
EMFK: Karl Marx was a 'community organizer'. He must be cheering from his grave and saluting ACORN for such chaos.
Author: NY Post Editorial Board Link: NY Post Date Published: October 15th, 2008 Excerpt:
Meanwhile, Barack Obama's favorite band of "community organizers," ACORN, has caught the attention of prosecutors in both Ohio and Indiana.
The bipartisan board of elections in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, voted unanimously Monday to ask the local DA to investigate multiple allegations of fraud - including the case, first reported by The Post, of Freddie Johnson, who admits he was paid by ACORN to register 72 times.
And Indiana's top elections officer asked the state attorney general to investigate reports that ACORN submitted thousands of fraudulent registrations in the Indianapolis area.
Overall, at least a dozen states are looking into ACORN-submitted registrations.
In Bridgeport, Conn., some 20 percent of the group's submitted registrations have been deemed fraudulent; in Houston, it's 40 percent.
Anything that widespread and systemic can't be handled solely at the state level.
It's time for the US Justice Department and federal prosecutors to get involved.
At a press conference yesterday, an ACORN official said, "Yes, we know there's been fraud," but blamed "some bad apples in the bunch."
That's ridiculous, of course.
EMFK: We have a few readers that believe we're being too harsh on ACORN. In a comment yesterday, "ACORN isn't the problem--the federal government and the Republicans are the problem".
The problem of widespread cheating through at least a dozen states is ACORN. Factor in that ACORN is 'non-partisan' and 'non-profit' organization and you begin to realize why many Americans are angry. If Obama is such a strong candidate, there is no reason to "register" dead voters, felons, or others that are ineligible to vote. Or, in some cases names were just made up. All of which are against US Election laws.
For all of you who feel sorry for ACORN, you need to refocus on who is to blame in this voter scandal. Put the blame where it belongs---ACORN! No one told ACORN to put a voter registration drive together nor did anyone tell them to cheat. By casting the blame elsewhere, ACORN and their supporters are trying to cover up what could be one of the largest voter scandals in American history.
We join the NY Post Editorial Board in asking the Department of Justice to begin a widespread investigation.
WASHINGTON— In the wake of numerous reports of widespread election fraud by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter today to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey requesting that the Department of Justice immediately launch a nationwide criminal probe into ACORN’s voter registration activities and investigate ACORN as a “criminal enterprise.”
In his letter, Sen. Cornyn, a former State Attorney General and Texas Supreme Court Justice, said, “Election fraud imposes a real cost on our system, beyond the obvious consequence of subverting a free and fair election. Fraudulent voter registration on this scale seriously strains state and local elections resources and distracts elections officials from preparing to conduct an orderly election. Of course, ACORN’s nationwide voter registration fraud provides an opportunity for individuals to vote who should not, or for some to vote more than once.”
Author: Phillip Elliott Link: AP Date Published: October 14th, 2008 (Just breaking) Excerpt:
By PHILIP ELLIOTT Associated Press Writer
Published on Tuesday Oct 14, 2008 A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered Ohio's top elections official to set up a system by the end of the week to verify new voters' eligibility and make it available to Ohio's 88 county election boards.
The full 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld a lower court's ruling that Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must use other government records to check the thousands of new voters for registration fraud. A three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit had disagreed last week, but the full court's ruling trumped the panel's decision.
Acorn is very proud of the number of "new" voters they've registered (or attempted) across the country. The map is from their website directly.
They're angry at John McCain for "calling" them out. However, how does a NON-PARTISAN group that is non-profit call out a presidential nominee and not be considered partisan?
State and local officials should have no problems finding out how many "registered" voters are from ACORN's voting drives. They have created a map to show which states and how many voters they've registered. Thank you, ACORN. It should make their job a whole lot easier.
Author: Lynn Bonner Link: News Observer Date Published: October 14th, 2008 Hat Tip: EMFK Readers (Thank you! Keep sending information!) Excerpt:
The State Board of Elections is investigating suspicious voter registration forms submitted by an organization whose problems have drawn national attention.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN, conducted a voter drive that registered nearly 28,000 people in North Carolina. But some of the forms it filed had information that may have been copied from phone books, local election officials said.
Durham County's elections office turned over about 120 suspect forms to the state for investigation about three weeks ago, and Wake County's elections office sent in about 30 suspicious forms last week.
