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twitterCriminal charges filed against ACORN, two employees
Published Monday, May 4, 2009 | 12:12 p.m.
Updated Monday, May 4, 2009 | 1:09 p.m.
Catherine Cortez Masto
Sun archives
- State: No false or stifled votes here (10-29-2008)
- Voter fraud isn’t what – by some – it’s cracked out to be (10-12-2008)
- You can trust that your vote counts in Nevada, election officials say (10-12-2008)
- Gibbons, Gansert care deeply about voter verification (10-9-2008)
- Corrections department unaware of potential voter fraud (10-9-2008)
Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Secretary of State Ross Miller announced Monday that voter registration fraud charges have been filed against an organization that works with low-income people and two of its employees in its Las Vegas office.
The complaint includes 26 counts of voter fraud and 13 counts for compensating those registering voters, both felonies.
The Association of Community Organization for Reform Now, Inc., also known as ACORN, operated a Las Vegas office that helped register low-income voters last year.
Throughout 2008, ACORN employed canvassers to register people to vote in Nevada, the complaint said. ACORN paid the canvassers between $8 and $9 an hour, but made continued employment and continued compensation based on the canvasser registering 20 voters per shift. Those who failed to sign up 20 voters per shift were terminated, the complaint said.
From July 27 through Oct. 2 ACORN also provided additional compensation under a bonus program called "Blackjack" or "21+" that was based on the total number of voters a person registered.
A canvasser who brought in 21 or more completed voter registration forms per shift would be paid a bonus of $5.
The Blackjack program was created by employee Christopher Edwards, field director for the Las Vegas office. ACORN timesheets indicate that corporate officers of ACORN were aware of the Blackjack bonus program and failed to take immediate action to stop it.
Amy Busefink was ACORN's deputy regional director who was also aware of the Blackjack program and aided and abetted the scheme by approving Edwards' bonus program.
The investigation into the scheme stemmed from a complaint filed with Miller's office by Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax. Lomax's office received a significant number of voter registration application forms that appeared to be fraudulent, although none of the irregular forms ended up in the November election.
"Nevada will not tolerate violations of the law by individuals nor will it allow corporations to hide behind or place blame on their employees when training manuals clearly detail, condone and, indeed, require illegal acts in performing the job for the corporation," Masto said during a media conference today.
"This investigation is the direct result of our aggressive response to those safeguards," Miller said, referring to a state task force formed in July.
State investigators, armed with a search warrant, sought evidence of voter registration fraud at ACORN's Las Vegas office on Oct. 7.
The investigation began in July, as soon as the task force formed.
Allegations that some registration applications were completed with false information, while other applications attempted to register the same person several times, led investigators to raid the office, Miller said at the time.
The Secretary of State's Office had provided 2,000 voter registration applications to ACORN, all for registering voters in Clark County.
The task force also seized eight computer hard drives and about 20 boxes of documents in the rain, related to ACORN's "Project Vote," the registration drive.
One ex-employee of ACORN, Jason Anderson, rose to a supervisor position in the voter registration program although he was a convicted felon and an inmate in a medium security facility in Las Vegas at the time, a 19-page affidavit said.
ACORN officials said they were stunned by the October raid because they had already identified and flagged suspicious registration forms to the Clark County Election Department, starting in July, according to Brian Mellor, senior counsel for Project Vote. ACORN forms were resubmitted to the state in September, he said.
ACORN had been the focus of heated denunciation by the Republican National Committee and the John McCain presidential campaign.
A call to the Las Vegas ACORN office was not answered.
"We commend the Secretary of State and Attorney General's offices for their work in this investigation," said Phoebe Sweet, director of communications for the Nevada State Democratic Party. "Clearly the system works, and fraudulent registrations were caught and disqualified. And today's action on the part of the Secretary of State and Attorney General will help ensure that unlawful quota systems that encourage fraud are not used in the future."
Discussion: 19 comments so far…
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Obama will pardon them. After all, they helped get him elected.
The RJ will be wetting their pants over this one. No matter, Obama would have been elected anyway, and all you Nevada Dixiecrats are losers. Period...
Sorry to break it to you, Poker Ray, but if you go to the Pew Research Center's website, you can find all kinds of fascinating information about voter turnout that shows that ACORN didn't have thing one to do with Obama's election, and probably did more to hurt than to help.
It's about time these thugs and thieves were charged! Been waiting since the sham that the NV Dem Party refers to as "caucuses." The level of intimidation, cheating, rule breaking, rigging, and invective against those of us not voting for BO--especially against we HRC supporters--was something I never thought I'd experience in my own party.
Dems in primary states have no idea, not that they wish to be informed of the truth. It took one filthy Dem caucus in NV (and a decidedly antidemocratic RBC meeting) to have me quit the party I'd belonged to and believed in for 35 years.
ACORN stole the nomination for BO, and at some point, the complete truth WILL out. I'll never again align myself with a political party. Being a free agent is liberating. My vote is sacrosanct and will go to the most honest, decent candidate regardless of party.
Unless ACORN is disbanded, we will NEVER see a fair and free election in the country again! We can kiss the Republic good-bye. Forget disagreements about social issues and party affiliation and rally round constitutional and ethical principles.
It matters not how you feel about a candidate running for office. What matters is that the process be democratic regardless. Had the situation been reversed, and cheating perpetrated against BO (or a candidate from any other party), I'd be just as outraged.
I'm glad something is being done about this group. Being harrased by ACORN last fall was a real pain. They would follow me half way to my car trying to get me to register with them although I told them I was already registered!!
just let the rich vote, they don't give a hoot about anyone's rights. if we waited for these rich people to defend this country, we'd be a suburb of cuba.
26 counts of voter fraud is a loooong way from the claims made by our narrow minded conservative friends of ACORN overturning elections. This is minor and not worth more attention than I have given here. But I know conservatives will beat what little brains they have out over it.
ACORN and the SEIU are one and the same. Both started by William Rathke. Google it. Mr. Rathke resigned from the SEIU national board this year after his son was investigated for stealing over $1 Million in SEIU funds. Mr. Rathke still heads the large southern local.
Mr. Rathke's history includes being a founder of the SDS with William Ayers in the 60's. Quite a coincidence I am sure. These facts are all available online from news reports around the country.
And as it says in the article, all of the fradulent registration forms were intercepted by the Clark County Registrar of Voters before they were put into the system.
And once more for the record - voter REGISTRATION fraud is a different animal than voter fraud. They are both crimes, but so far there is no evidence that anyone who was fradulently registered actually voted in the last election.
I think ACORN reported collecting 90,000 or more registration cards in Nevada.
Only 26 of them were fraudulent.
The lunatic fringe needs to place their feet back on the ground. ACORN didn't steal the election from your beloved John McCain.
Its' about time this crooked and thugs at ACORN, get what they deserved, i hope they all go to jail. Next, should be SIEU and the teachers union, they are all corrupt and run their business like the mafia, by intimidation and harassement. Chairman Obama should be proud to be associated with thugs, i forgot he is one of them.
The mainstream pro-Obama media still isn't reporting on the fact that Obama is bringing in ACORN to help with the 2010 census. In other words, help Obama and the Dems collect data that will allow them to redraw districts for their own political benefit.
Too late to be charging these crooks now, the polls are closed.
"Obama is bringing in ACORN to help with the 2010 census."
Even if they are, so what?
Do you know how the census is taken? Well over 80% of the count is done by mail. The only time a "street team" is used is for homes with no fixed street address or non-standard housing (dorms, nursing homes, etc.), or to follow-up on forms that haven't been completed.
And then the forms are all run through a computer and matched through other sources (such as property tax and social security rolls) to verify the information is accurate.
"I think ACORN reported collecting 90,000 or more registration cards in Nevada.
Only 26 of them were fraudulent."
Who supplied these statistics? ACORN?
Larry Lomax, the registrar of voters for Clark County, reported those numbers.
.0285708006% of all those records were fraudulent, according to these charges.
And, as of today, no cases of fraudulent VOTES, just a handful of registrations which pale in comparison to the total number of registrations turned in.
The ACORN boogeyman turned out to be a shadow! All you right-wing fringe can come down from your chairs, now.
one fraudulent registration is too many ....Obama should be speaking out against this group and its cheating ways instead of alligning himself with them and allowing them to be part of the cencus process......it would only be right of him to do....if you dont speak against it you are silently speaking for them....cant trust people who wont speak out again injustices
What did Biden say during the campaign " if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck?" Well ACORN does not and can not pass a smell test, being connected to ACORN will benefit President Obama. He is directly aligned with this organization, weather he intended to or not makes no difference. He can not pass the smell test either over this. WOW vote of no confidence for President Obama and ACORN the Census will have no validity. no confidence, and the first three letters of confidence, what a con, We will all be agreeing with this new administration before to long for we will have no choice, our decisions will be made for us. When will the mainstream press wake up and just do their job. I am a registered democrat and I am so disgusted in the democratic party, we need to change the Party symbol to a Pig for the +8000 pork projects in the sewer bill of this party, oh I get it PARTY, PARTY, PARTY.
The other voter registration fraud:
http://bit.ly/gs4BI
The owner of a voter-registration company pleaded guilty Tuesday to voter-registration fraud, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. Laguna Beach resident Mark Jacoby, who collects signatures for petition drives, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to three years' probation and 30 days of service with the California Department of Transportation. Jacoby, owner of Young Political Majors, registered to vote at Los Angeles addresses that were not his own. State law requires petition circulators to be qualified voters. Jacoby will also be required to show proof he is registered at his correct address.
And, Jacoby and Young Political Majors were hired by the California Republican Party to head up their voter registration efforts in the state. Won't hear about this one on Fox Noise.