Las Vegas office raided in voter fraud probe
Bonnie Smith-Greathouse, right, the head organizer for Nevada’s Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, chants with staff members and volunteers outside their offices in Las Vegas on Tuesday. The Nevada Secretary of State’s office has accused the organization of voter fraud and seized documents from the office. They chanted, “Who are we? ACORN! What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!”
Published Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 | 11:16 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 | 6:30 p.m.
Court document
Beyond the Sun
Statement from Gov. Jim Gibbons
- "Our voting system is very simply the greatest in the world and is the basis of what makes this country great. The allegation that an organization that’s main purpose is to register new voters was doing so fraudulently is very troubling. I believe that requiring a photo ID to vote is a very reasonable protection for our voting system and should be enacted as law by the 2009 Legislature."
Related story: Fraud probe worries champions of black vote
Members of a new task force designed to prevent voter fraud raided the Las Vegas office of an organization that works with low-income people on everything from voting to neighborhood improvements.
State investigators, armed with a search warrant, sought evidence of voter fraud at the office of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN, a Nevada Secretary of State's office spokesman said today.
"This is part of an ongoing investigation by the multijurisdictional task force that we announced this past July," Secretary of State Ross Miller said in a statement. "We said then that we would work aggressively to protect the process. We're going to do everything possible to ensure that Nevada's voter rolls are protected and to ensure that only those who are eligible can cast a ballot."
There are allegations that some registration applications were completed with false information, while other applications attempted to register the same person multiple times, Miller said.
"We've been told that some of the allegedly erroneous applications even included the names of players from the Dallas Cowboys football team," Miller said.
The Secretary of State's office provided 2,000 voter registration applications to ACORN for use anywhere in the state. The Clark County registrar's office has provided 122,600 registration applications to ACORN, all of which can be used only for registration in Clark County.
The Election Integrity Task Force, developed by Miller, state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI, was announced on July 31 to investigate questionable voter registration, voter fraud and intimidation.
"Now we begin the task of sifting through the material that was seized to determine how widespread the fraud might be," Miller said. "We're giving this the highest priority with the election looming, but until we've had time to thoroughly analyze the material, it would be inappropriate and speculative to suggest how widespread it may be."
No one was in the ACORN office when state agents arrived and began hauling away records and documents, Secretary of State spokesman Bob Walsh said.
The warrant also authorized seizing computer equipment related to ACORN's "Project Vote!" voter registration drive, Walsh said. Eight computer hard drives and about 20 boxes of documents were seized, he said.
No one has been arrested.
ACORN's interim chief organizer Bertha Lewis released a statement calling the Secretary of State's office raid "a stunt that serves no useful purpose other than [to] discredit our work registering Nevadans and distracting us from the important work ahead of getting every eligible vote to the polls."
ACORN had received a subpoena dated Sept. 19 requesting information on 15 employees, all of whose names had been included in packages previously submitted to election officials, Lewis said. ACORN provided its personnel records on the 15 employees on Sept. 29, she said.
"For the past 10 months, any time ACORN has identified a potentially fraudulent application, we turn that application in to election officials separately and offer to provide election officials with the information they would need to pursue an investigation or prosecution of the individual," Lewis said. "Election officials routinely ignored this information and failed to act."
ACORN representatives met with election officials and a representative of the Secretary of State's office on July 17 and were asked to provide a second copy of documents previously provided, she said. She said ACORN gave officials copies of 46 application packages, which involved 33 former canvassers.
In a 19-page affidavit by criminal investigator Colin Hayes of the Secretary of State's office, Hayes said 59 inmates worked for ACORN between March 5 and July 31.
One ex-employee of ACORN, Jason Anderson, rose to the rank of a supervisor in the voter registration program although he was a convicted felon and an inmate at Casa Grande at the time, the affidavit said.
In addition to the records ACORN had given state officials, Clark County election workers discovered another 183 suspicious files, each with different voters' names, the affidavit said. In some cases, dozens of people had no records in Nevada, or addresses didn't exist, the affidavit said.
Nevada State Democratic Party officials addressed the raid on the ACORN office, noting that the state has strict laws designed to ensure only eligible voters can participate in elections.
"We commend the Secretary of State and Attorney General's offices in this investigation," said Travis Brock, executive director of the state Democratic party. "Elections must be fair and open to people who are eligible to vote, but we condemn any efforts to improperly register voters."
Task force members urged new voters and residents to register with the county registrar's office, then check their registration status at www.silverstate08.com.
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ACRON has been in trouble for similar fraud in other states.
Obama has ties to ACORN.
Also, ACORN gets money from the taxpayers via shell entities that get Federal grants.
It is funny how you never get all the facts from liberal news stories. They are always hiding something that they think is not "revelant".
And they wonder why people do not trust them.
..In 2006 ACORN submitted 27,000 applications, it turned out that only 2,000 were real; all of the rest had been faked...What kind of BALLOT BOX STUFFING IS THIS??? If you can't get enough people to vote your way, just make more people???
What the heck is going on here?
First Obama sits in Rev Wright's congregation for 20 years, calls the Rev a mentor then denies that he ever heard a sermon like that before..But we can't attack him on that because it isn't his beliefs..
Second we here about Obama and his ties to William Ayers the TERRORIST...and REZKO'S strong arming tactics...but we can't attack him on that because it is not his beliefs.
Third we here that Obama was involved with ACORN, and we shouldn't attack him on this???
Finally Obama attempted to use the Justice Department to stop WGN radio in Chicago from talking to an author of an ANTI-OBAMA book...Then when that did not work, he had his supporters flood the station with calls to prevent the interview... (THIS BORDERS ON STALIN LIKE TACTICS) but this never received very much coverage in the news...
Every time something blows up we are told that we cannot attack Obama. Obama himself dismisses it by saying that it is back to politics as usual...In reality this shows that he has repeated associated himself with subversive and all around bad people...This is a pattern of bad judgment...
The Republican National Committee has been beating the hammer against ACORN for months now because ACORN registers low-income people - those most likely to vote Democratic. It's all part of the typical Republican voter suppression campaign that happens every election cycle:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story...
The Republicans also try to make connections between Obama and ACORN (but those rumors have no basis in reality)
http://fightthesmears.com/articles/20/ac...
It seems every time I turn on the local radio, there is some conservative woman railing about ACORN. It's the most ridiculous, racist, class-warring thing I've encountered in a long time.
You're a Republican. When your policies have the economy tanking, soldiers dying in Iraq rather than hunting for the mastermind of the cold-blooded murder of more than 2,700 on September 11, 2001, and a ticket of someone erratic and someone erroneous, you make sure your goosestepping followers have talking points and hope the public is dumb enough not to see how morally bankrupt you are.
Calling a radio show is hardly a "Stalin-like tactic."
Know how I define "Stalin-like"?
At a rally in Florida, Sarah Palin attacks Barack Obama for a supposed relationship with Bill Ayres. An audience member responds: "Kill him!"
At the same rally, an audience member hurls a racial epithet at an African-American sound man for a national network, then shouts, "Sit down, boy!"
Elsewhere in Florida, a UNIFORMED county sheriff appears at a McCain rally and rails against "Barack Hussein Obama."
McCain asks a rally, "Who is Barack Obama?" An audience member responds, "A terrorist!"
Palin attacks Obama for a comment (taken out of context) on Afghanistan. An audience member shouts, "Treason!" (And you know what we do with traitors, don'tcha?)
This election is entering a very dangerous phase. I can't wait until my car windows get broken out because I had the audacity to put an Obama bumper sticker on my car.
This does happen on both sides of the isle you know. In Riverside and San Bernardino Counties Republicans changed the party affiliation of voters who signed petitions.
I had to vote a provisional ballot during the primaries because mine had been changed. In the end my vote did not count.
I didn't blame McCain or the entire Republican Party; I blamed the isolated group who was responsible.
Get a life.
by REPUBLICANS FOR OBAMA
MCCAIN CAN'T BE TRUSTED BY CONSERVATIVES.
MCCAIN WILL PUSH YUCCA MOUNTAIN ON NEVADA.
MCCAIN WILL DO AWAY WITH SOCIAL SECURITY.
MCCAIN WILL CONTINUE THE DISASTROUS POLICIES OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION THAT HAVE PUSHED THIS COUNTRY TO THE BRINK OF A NEW DEPRESSION.
VOTE FOR A NEW DIRECTION. VOTE FOR OBAMA.
THIS IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF MINORITIES GETTING RAILROADED BY THE SYSTEM!!!!!
OBAMA NEEDS TO STEP IN AND STOP THIS INJUSTICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FIRST THEY PUT O.J. IN JAIL FOR JUST TRYING TO GET HIS STUFF BACK, NOW THEY ARE RAIDING AN INNOCENT ORGANIZATION LIKE ACORN THAT IS JUST TRYING TO VOTE!!!!!!!!
OBAMA NEEDS TO COME AND HELP FIGHT THIS!!!!!!!!
The pressure is on the GOP in the swing states and goose stepping methods at work to disenfranchise voters. The timing of this "raid" follows the closing of registration for voters. The question is will Nevadans allow to happen what we saw in Florida and other swing states 2000 and 2004?
tokaloshe, You seem to have a lot of animosity towards people of color.
Do you understand that people are voting for Obama based on his ideas not his color?
He and Nance seem to be in the race baiting business right now. They keep saying Obama has to do something about OJ. Why? Is it because Obama is black? As in, one black man needs to help out another black man, because they are both black men?
This is race baiting. If a black man said Bush gave Libby a pardon because they are both white, he would be called a racist. That or he would be told he's a moron. Either or.
ACORN fraud is nationwide. But, hey! They just doin' their thug thizzle.
"Who are we"..........Fat people
"what do we want"...........junk food
"When do we want it"..........yesterday
For your viewing enjoyment........
Just a little levity to bring a much needed chuckle to an otherwise hopelessly dreary day.
azsk8fan,
Yeah your right, we should all make fun of someone else to make ourselves better when we are having a bad day.(sarcasm)
Well I think this is a wonderful day and November 5th is looking even better!
Jack - I'm having a wonderful day -
Look at the picture above and read the caption. It says "they chanted". Look at the picture again - who is "they?" One person chanting, one person chuckling at her and the others are un-interested.
No wonder the press is viewed as it is.
Why should they bother with legalities when the new Messiah wasn't even born in the U.S.? Read the most recent pleadings at www.obamacrimes.com Prominent Democratic lawyer Philip Berg is well on his way to proving that NOBama is constitutionally disqualified from being President because he was born in Kenya.
1)You really have no concept of the constitution do you? I mean really at all. According to the 14th amendment, anyone is a full US citizen if they are a) born within the territories of the United States or b) ANY ONE OF THEIR PARENTS ARE UNITED STATES CITIZENS.
2)So even if your spurious contention is true, that he was born in Kenya, he is still a full blooded, 100% from birth natural born US citizen.
3)If that's all you republicans got, better gear up for a long four years of Obama.
NEXT!
ferret: I suggest you go to law school after you get your graduate degree in history. The citizenship issues are a little more complicated than you realize. If NOBama was born in Kenya, Indonesia or Outer Mongolia, he is not eligible to be President. OED.
Well, again you must be a little off. Here's a link.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/...
here's some good excerpts
At PolitiFact.com, were all about original sources. We dont take anyone at their word or take the reporting of other media organizations as proof. We go to the heart of the story, the source of the truth original, corroborating documents.
When the official documents were questioned, we went looking for more answers. We circled back to the Department of Health, had a newsroom colleague bring in her own Hawaii birth certificate to see if it looks the same (its identical). But every answer triggered more questions.
And soon enough, after going to every length possible to confirm the birth certificates authenticity, you start asking, what is reasonable here?
Because if this document is forged, then they all are.
If this document is forged, a U.S. senator and his presidential campaign have perpetrated a vast, long-term fraud. They have done it with conspiring officials at the Hawaii Department of Health, the Cook County (Ill.) Bureau of Vital Statistics, the Illinois Secretary of States office, the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois and many other government agencies.
Sounds like a Vince Flynn novel.
and
The Hawaii Department of Health receives about a dozen e-mail inquiries a day about Obamas birth certificate, spokesman Okubo said.
I guess the big issue thats being raised is the lack of an embossed seal and a signature, Okubo said, pointing out that in Hawaii, both those things are on the back of the document. Because they scanned the front ... you wouldnt see those things.
Okubo says she got a copy of her own birth certificate last year and it is identical to the Obama one we received.
And about the copy we e-mailed her for verification? When we looked at that image you guys sent us, our registrar, he thought he could see pieces of the embossed image through it.
Still, she acknowledges: I dont know that its possible for us to even say beyond a doubt what the image on the site represents.
And theres the rub. It is possible that Obama conspired his way to the precipice of the worlds biggest job, involving a vast network of people and government agencies over decades of lies. Anythings possible.
But step back and look at the overwhelming evidence to the contrary and your sense of whats reasonable has to take over.
There is not one shred of evidence to disprove PolitiFacts conclusion that the candidates name is Barack Hussein Obama, or to support allegations that the birth certificate he released isnt authentic.
And thats true no matter how many people cling to some hint of doubt and use the Internet to fuel their innate sense of distrust.
NEXT!
oh and here's another choice one for the rabid conspiracy theorists out there. Don't worry I'm working on those nuts questioning 9/11 and the Holocaust next.
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/...
Here's a good excerpt that's the definitive nail in the coffin.
In fact, the conspiracy would need to be even deeper than our colleagues realized. In late July, a researcher looking to dig up dirt on Obama instead found a birth announcement that had been published in the Honolulu Advertiser on Sunday, Aug. 13, 1961
and a really good counter is...
Some of the conspiracy theories that have circulated about Obama are quite imaginative. One conservative blogger suggested that the campaign might have obtained a valid Hawaii birth certificate, soaked it in solvent, then reprinted it with Obama's information. Of course, this anonymous blogger didn't have access to the actual document and presents this as just one possible "scenario" without any evidence that such a thing actually happened or is even feasible.
We also note that so far none of those questioning the authenticity of the document have produced a shred of evidence that the information on it is incorrect. Instead, some speculate that somehow, maybe, he was born in another country and doesn't meet the Constitution's requirement that the president be a "natural-born citizen."
I think that's called uber-pwnage
Yawn. Where is the Official Seal of the Great State of Hawaii on the purported COLB? Bottomline: no seal, no deal. I also was a history major way back when. I joined the Marine Corps because there weren't any jobs for people with irrelevant academic credentials. Hey, I hear ACORN is hiring and the only criterion is a total lack of ethical standards.
States do not validate US citizenship when people register to vote. The California, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida non-citizen vote will put John McCain in the White House. The Democrats who have allow non-citizens to vote since HAVA 2002 (only a utility bill as a means of identification meets the standards outline by HAVA 2002) are now indirectly allowing non-citizens to elect John McCain to be the next President. Non-citizen Hispanics will not vote for Obama and they do not tell people taking the polls who they are going to vote for because the are under the radar, remember the States DO NOT VALIDATE US CITIZENSHIP when people register to vote and rarely prosecuted violations of voter fraud because liberal judges will not find them guilty unless they admit their guilt. State Prosecutors are reluctant to prosecute cases, so non-citizens have very little FEAR of getting caught. John McCain will be the next President of the United States not because of White Racism but non-citizens who think Blacks (in their mind) are getting a free ride, while they have to work at slave labor wages. Remember the TV ads directed at Spanish speaking voters, to be a citizen you have a basic understanding of the English language these ads where for the non-citizen Spanish speaking voter.
Stand by on election night when Barrack Obama has up to 8 point leads in California, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida and then John McCain wins those STATES.
I got my Senate voting data at http://www.SenateReports.com you can too!
Well if you read the rest of the document that the links provided they told you why.
Now why don't you use those great reading skills law school taught you and read it and then you may weep.
If this is the ace in the hole, then McSame the Third is in deep doo doo.
As said before uber-pwnage.
I don't weep. Never did, never will. I've read both sides of the issue as well as Philip Berg's pleadings, which are compelling. By the way, we're all in deep guano. Neither candidate represents the best and brightest within our body politic.
The economy is in serious trouble and places like California are supporting illegal alien families with massive welfare payments. $ billions of dollars that could be spent on the legal population, infrastructure, health care is supporting illegal pariah employer hires.
YOU, THE TAXPAYER ARE UNDERWRITING THE BUSINESSES, WHO EMPLOY ILLEGAL ALIENS OVER LEGAL WORKERS.
Even our own government is violating it's own laws, by funding 'Sanctuary cities'. MILLIONS have stolen into our country and we reward them with taxpayer money. STOP IT! Or they will never stop coming..
The pestilence will not stop growing till we rigidly enforce immigration laws. the middle class already overburdened with war appropriation funds, is still forced to pay for the education, free health-care and Federal, state welfare handouts for illegal criminals.
Be observant and watch for VOTER FRAUD, as illegal aliens will commit perjury in November. Liberal Socialists and Democrats have worked against a much needed measure that would prevent voter fraud. They are obstructing any effort to reform the flawed Motor Voter Act because they are trying to protect the "oppressed." so they say? But with between 12 to 30 million illegal immigrants squatting in this country, There is no way to prevent an illegal alien from registering to vote when there is no way to differentiate them from anyone else. When you don't even have to show a drivers license in many states, what will be the disastrous outcome
The fact that fact that anybody can vote in the 2009 Election, Democrats have refused to enforce this basic of national sovereignty. The mantra , from the pro-illegal immigration groups always use the term 'Immigrant', as though by confusing the words is going to change the demands of the majority of logical thinking citizens and legal residents. Most national newspapers and the media, always categorizes ALL people who enter America as immigrants!
There is a stark difference between those people who are inspected for contagious diseases, criminal backgrounds and have been issued a entry visa. People who ignore THE PEOPLE'S laws are illegal immigrants or illegal aliens? In most newspapers the editors have been brain-washed or lobotomize, because they refuse to illustrate the massive difference between legal and illegal.
SIGN UP FOR THE SAVE ACT(H.R.4088) enforcement 'ONLY' law at www.numbersusa.com.
SIGN JUDICIAL WATCH, A LEGAL ORGANIZATIONS PETITION, TO RESCIND ALL 'SANCTUARY CITIES & STATES.
www.sanctuarybusters.org/?source.
www.numbersusa.com to Petition the SAVE ACT. For immigration facts not propaganda or lies,
wow off topic, ranting, and ill informed.
News flash, that horrible economy that you referenced has actually done something good. It has halted the flow of illegal immigrants and actually reversed their flow. We are so strapped for jobs and money that they have stopped coming and are leaving.
Leave this spam junk elsewhere. BTW, genius, republicans vote against those measures too. Many in fact vote against it because BUSINESS wants the illegals, because it equals cheap labor.
These people have no concern about this country. All they want to do is steal this election. Stop them now.