The American Spectator : SOS in Minnesota

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SOS in Minnesota

By Matthew Vadum on 11.7.08 @ 6:07AM

Can ACORN swing another Senate seat to the Democrats?

As Democrats nationwide try to make the climb to a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate by pursuing recounts, an outspoken ACORN ally presides over the tallying of votes in the still-unresolved Minnesota Senate race.

The fact that Mark Ritchie, a Democrat and former community organizer, largely controls the electoral process in the Land of 10,000 Lakes may be important.

That's because at press time incumbent Republican Norm Coleman led Democrat Al Franken by just 341 votes and the Democrats controlled 57 seats in the Senate, compared to the Republicans' 40. The Senate races in Alaska and Georgia also have yet to be resolved, though in both the Republicans are leading and are expected to win in the end.

The Minnesota seat is the only one that Democrats could try to steal. Every seat closer to 60 gives President-elect Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers an opportunity to permanently alter America's political, economic, and cultural landscape.

Both Franken and Obama, by the way, were endorsed by ACORN Votes, ACORN's federal political action committee.

Minnesota's secretary of state isn't a Democrat by happenstance.

Ritchie, who defeated two-term incumbent Republican Mary Kiffmeyer in 2006, received an endorsement and financial assistance for his run from a below-the-radar non-federal "527" group called the Secretary of State Project. The entity can accept unlimited financial contributions and doesn't have to disclose them publicly until well after the election.

The founders of the Secretary of State Project, which claims to advance "election protection" but only backs Democrats, religiously believe that right-leaning secretaries of state helped the GOP steal the presidential elections in Florida in 2000 (Katherine Harris) and in Ohio in 2004 (Ken Blackwell).

The secretary of state candidates the group endorses sing the same familiar song about electoral integrity issues: Voter fraud is largely a myth, vote suppression is used widely by Republicans, cleansing the dead and fictional characters from voter rolls should be avoided until embarrassing media reports emerge, and anyone who demands that a voter produce photo identification before pulling the lever is a racist, democracy-hating Fascist.

The group was co-founded in July 2006 by James Rucker, formerly director of grassroots mobilization for MoveOn.org Political Action and Moveon.org Civic Action. "Any serious commitment to wrestling control of the country from the Republican Party must include removing their political operatives from deciding who can vote and whose votes will count," said another co-founder, Becky Bond, to the San Francisco Chronicle in 2006.

Its website claims, "A modest political investment in electing clean candidates to critical Secretary of State offices is an efficient way to protect the election." Indeed. Political observers know that a relatively small amount of money can help swing a little-watched race for a state office few people understand or care about.

The strategic targeting of the SoS Project yielded impressive results this year and in 2006.

Days ago, SoS Project-backed Democrats Linda McCulloch (Montana), Natalie Tennant (West Virginia), Robin Carnahan (Missouri), and Kate Brown (Oregon) won their races. Only Carnahan was an incumbent. The Center for Public Integrity reported two months ago that the group had thus far raised a mere $280,000 for the 2008 election cycle.

Talk about return on investment!

In 2006, along with Minnesota's Ritchie, SoS Project-endorsed Jennifer Brunner (Ohio), who last month defied federal law by refusing to take steps to verify 200,000 questionable voter registrations, trounced her opponent, 55% to 41%. Democrats supported by the group also won that year in New Mexico, Nevada, and Iowa. The group claims it spent about $500,000 in that election cycle.

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About the Author

Matthew Vadum is an award-winning investigative journalist at a conservative watchdog group in Washington, D.C. Vadum is also author of Subversion Inc: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (54) | Leave a comment

daddio| 11.7.08 @ 6:34AM

This is what we have to look forward to for the next 20 years or so. This is who the democrats bring to the table. The radicals of the 60s won. The American people lost. Viva la revolucion!

malm| 11.7.08 @ 8:41AM

I understand the democrats have been busy, but so have republicans doing all that hard work like listening to talk radio and visiting conservative websites and blogs. Oh, and watching Fox. Is this not enough ? Is this not enough ? Afterall our fearless leader, the all knowing one, has instructed us to believe the enemey are maggot infested, dopesmoking , drooling embeciles educated through the public schools, and live and die by hollywood values. Yet, if politics were basketball, they would be the Harlem Globetrotters, and we the whitebread chump team do jour. Looks like all this rugged individualism can't compete. WE gotta form our own groups. We must become more collectivist. Yikes we must "organize", like heaven forbid, UNIONS. First we need a new point guard, going back to hoops analogy. Cut the " doctor of democracy" from the squad. He is the TO of the GOP.We need team players who will share the ball with everybody, even moderates. Even linguini spined moderates like John Chaffee of RI(not his son-he is a joke). Our point guard called Chaffee linguini spined , even though he served in WW2 and Korea as a Marine officer. Not one of you rightwing absolutist had a kind word for him when he passed on. Or else I missed it. Our point guard who was never a Marine probably said good riddence. How did such people become the only counterforce to the mighty Democrat army that is gearing up for the final assault on the America we honor and love. But, hey dig in. Man the battle stations. The dems might raise the minimum wage, now stopping some poor guy from gaining 50 cents and hour is a cause worth fighting for. Hopless, hopless, hopless. Third party anyone? Anyone?

Fred| 11.7.08 @ 11:40AM

Ordinarily I wouldn't stoop to pointing out such a thing but in this context your misspelling of "imbecile" is delightfully ironic.

StrongProgressive| 11.7.08 @ 12:08PM

To Republicans who think that "voter fraud" is a real phenomenon: it's not. How do I know? Because there's no proof or any documentation of it ANYWHERE. Where's the "voter fraud" that you so blatantly claim is happening? In Minnesota in 2006 there were a reported 3 (as in 1, 2, 3) people who voted who shouldn't have, out of the millions of votes cast. And yet, Republicans and their minions talk about it as if it's a real threat. What IS real is stolen elections - which Republicans engineered - in both 2000 and 2004. What a brilliant idea they have, though. Deflect attention from their REAL election theft by creating FAKE threats about threats to electoral integrity.

We know what you're up to.

Large voter turnouts hurt your cause and therefore you do all you can to prevent it. Have you no shame? Thankfully in Minnesota, we have a Secretary of State who actually believes in the right to vote, unlike his predecessor who tried to suppress the vote, including saying that Native Americans couldn't use their tribal ID's to cast ballots.

Frankly, those who oversee elections shouldn't be partisans at all. It makes no good democratic sense to have people faithful to one party or another overseeing the election system. Secretaries of State should be nonpartisan offices and I've thought that for a long time, even when we had a well-respected democrat who held our state office for 20 years (Joan Growe). That said, however, I'm extremely grateful that we have someone in office currently who defends our right to vote and doesn't try to come up with tactics to suppress the vote.

And one more thing. You uber patriots who try to claim a monopoly on being American - there's nothing more American than voting. So if you want a contest between you and us progressives who actually BELIEVE IN VOTING - we'll take you any day.

Tim| 11.7.08 @ 12:34PM

Voting Yes, Stealing Elections No!

There is a vast leap between the two.

Acorn is about stealing elections because in their view that the end justifies the means.

Every legal person should vote but in an honest manner.

Griff| 11.7.08 @ 12:57PM

How is it that the dead always seem to vote Democrat?

Red Neck| 11.7.08 @ 1:05PM

Strong (as in Odor) Progressive (as in towards some dark, dank place)

Shouldn't weeding out invalid registrations in a state have equal impact upon all parties in that state, to the extent that a portion of this due to random error is keeping otherwise eligible voters out? Why are Democrats swearing up and down that this is hurting them but not their opponents?

Mikecampbelly2k| 11.7.08 @ 1:21PM

Would someone volunteer to send the honorable Strong Progressive a copy of John Fund's well documented book "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy" I look forward to any refutations the Strong Progressive has when he is finished reading the book.

sestamibi| 11.7.08 @ 2:25PM

As a former resident, I know that voters in Minnesota do not register by party, so how does Strong Progressive know that purging voter rolls would affect the DFL party disproportionately?

Red Neck| 11.7.08 @ 3:22PM

Oh, and as an early voter in my US state (to remain unnamed, but it ended up voting blue) what boggled my mind was when I sat down at a table and presented my voter registration card to the lady, she eyed me up and down while trying three times over the space of a few minutes to "find me in the system" (as I stared her back) before she actually did. I wonder if with my recent buzz cut I looked too much like a vet. (I'm not. It just saves me money to do it myself that way.) There has got to be a lot of slip between the cup and the lip.

Tim| 11.7.08 @ 5:10PM

Stealing Elections is routine in some circles.

Take Unions for instance. It is routine for many Union Officials to stuff ballot boxes in contract votes but even worse they do it in their own Officer elections where they deny a rank and file union member the chance to be elected.
Check Out UNCHARTED.CA and click on your union and you will be amazed at what goes on.

Acorn is just another "Union" type organization who's only purpose is to get Democtrats elected.

Don't get me wrong, if Acorn was not receiving our tax money they can speak for the dems and most folks wouldn't care other than their illegal vote getting schemes which is much more blatant than traditional Unions but then again they have had much more practice.

Most everyone knows that the union dues money is the political milk and honey for the Dems but some people actually believed that Acorn was an organization that was fair and balanced.

The good news is that polls now show that the majority of people now believe that they are in the tank for the Dems. We need to build on this knowledge so that they will be castrated by the time the 2010 election rolls around.

malm| 11.7.08 @ 6:57PM

Gee sorry Fred. I also screwed up du jour, guess you missed that. I work hard with my hands like Sarah's fella, and Joe the plumber. Not condusive to typing skills like you, a card carrying , chattering class dweeb. But guess what without my vote and that of my wife a great R.N., you and your hero LIMPFRAU will be in a 90 per cent tax bracket. So start kissing my ass or lose even bigger. And please don"t threaten me with that Atlas Shrugged crap.

Amy| 11.8.08 @ 4:44PM

This should not be a partisan issue. Everyone I know, (Dems, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians) They all agree, we should have a trustworthy voting system. I found this info pretty quickly, just google it yourself if you don't believe me.
Here's what happened with Acorn. They hired people to register voters of any party. Some of them, instead of doing their jobs, filled out forms with fake information. When they were found out, Acorn fired them. The registrations had to be submitted, according to law, to town clerks, but they were separated and marked to help the town clerks officially disqualify them. Mickey Mouse did not show up at the polls.
In fact, the Bush administration has spent lots of time searching out actual voter fraud and found almost none. (one source says 11 convictions out of 37 cases over five years)
There is, however, lots of evidence that real voters were denied for reasons like this: the name on their driver's license had a full middle name, but their registration has an inital. Or they neglected the Jr. on a student ID. Just look up the elderly nuns who were denied their primary votes because their driver's licenses had expired. They were over 80, were not driving anymore, and the information on the license was all correct and some were known to the pollworkers personally.

I don't know anyone who thinks this is how our elections should be. Tell me, are the loudly partisan Republicans here happy that those Sisters couldn't vote?

Aquinas| 11.8.08 @ 5:43PM

Malm, calm down and learn to spell and punctuate. It's "riddance", "hopeless" , "conducive" , and "absolutists". By the way, most analogies are fallacious.

bobby b| 11.8.08 @ 6:25PM

"How is it that the dead always seem to vote Democrat?"

- - - - -

If you'll never have to worry about taxes again, making government pay for everything you don't want to pay for yourself sounds great!

malm| 11.8.08 @ 7:27PM

Sorry Aquinass, I think there is some thing called spell check on this computer thingamajig, and as for grammar or grammer or gramma? Well I guess I need to dust off my old copy of Strunks. Is it Strunks or Krunks ? What I need is a dikshunery, and some reading glasses. Anyhow , I am rusty on the stuff your brilliant mind has detected as lacking in proficiency or is it profisiency or profficiencey, or is it , Jesus I wish I could ask Sarah Pallin to help me out. Cheap shot I like her. Anyhow all these years I was counting on smart fellas like you to keep the smart fellas on the side in at least some kinda stalemate. But, well in that you are getting your rear ends kicked by meatballs like Matthews and Oberman , and as a consequence my country that I fought for in Viet Nam is in jeopardy from the left ; I am just trying to explain to you ideological purists who live in some weird artificial universe that winning elections is job one, and the only thing you need from linguini spined moderates like say Mike Dewine(remember him in the good old days when we had a senate majority-but he was bad. Some kinda gang of 14 outrage that had you boys steaming) is to vote for a Republican Majority Leader, and for us when he can without doing anything too rightwing, so as to not lose the next election to a real nut job lefty who votes for Harry Reid as Majority Leader. However, that is big tent inclusiveness(mispelled I am sure, do not care), and appreciating a moderate , something RL won't stand. And by the way as long as that jerk is your hero , and maximum leader you will always be my intellectual inferior. Oh, I take that back. Please help me be a smart , savy or is it savvy(gee being a writer really is hard work}, anyhow be my friend and explain to me how crying for the super rich all the time , if it is even whispered they might get a tax increase, and beating up on the little guy when he gets a minimum wage bone is gonna help us win Ohio back. Don't lay the Laffer curve on me, and all of that , not working, just like alot of your fellow Americans are not working. What we have here is a failure to communicate to the voters no matter how superb our grammar and spelink. So, go on you brainiacs make sure we run further to the right , and I am sure Sarah and Rick will be magic in 2012, and this dope will eat his humble pie gladly. Well so long Aquinas. Give me your adress and I will send you a Washington Generals tee shirt for Christmas. You could have been their waterboy. Meanwhile where is the GOP's Meadowlark Lemon ? I know he aint smoking 500 dollars cigars in his mansion. Sorry, I had to throw in at least one aint. Did I need to put that in itallics, or ittallics, or ittalics, or just plane old italics ? Darn this writing stuff is hard. No more for me. I'm gonna wait till after 2010, and 2012, and give my few bucks to the party, and others. My wife sent a small amount to that lovely woman in Minnasotta. Glad she did it. Maybe you guys really do know how to win elections. Hope so.

russ| 11.8.08 @ 10:29PM

You mean there's actually a difference between Franken the fairy fool and the R.I.N.O. Colman?

Savy| 11.8.08 @ 11:26PM

So do we just sit back and let them take over? No.

1. Identify and define these groups to the public.
2. Penetrate organizations with "volunteers"/monitors.
3. Penetrate networks to monitor/counter/neutralize.
3. Identify and target heads of their organization and front groups.
4. Make the ones in political positions known to public and identify them with their theft and corruption of the political process.
4. Eliminate the heads.
5. Return true one man/one vote to the people

People we are in a war. These people are not that
differetn from the jihadist we face. They both believe the ends justify the means. Who is going
to fight them? The Obama Justice Department?

Savymedia| 11.8.08 @ 11:42PM

So do we just sit back and let them take over? No.

1. Identify and define these groups to the public.
2. Penetrate organizations with "volunteers"/monitors.
3. Penetrate networks to monitor/counter/neutralize.
4. Identify and target heads of their organization and front groups.
5. Make the ones in political positions known to public and identify them with their theft and corruption of the political process.
6. Eliminate the heads.
7. Return true one man/one vote to the people

People we are in a war. These people are not that
different from the jihadist we face. They both believe the ends justify the means. Who is going
to fight them? The Obama Justice Department?

Beatrice| 11.9.08 @ 11:45AM

Now the whole world knows that ACORN is the EVIL Army of Communist, and Communism threats the Democracy. Obama won from election fraud. Obama does not even have a real birth certificate. If he does why does he hide?
He was born in Kenya from his Kenyan Dad.
Fraud candidate & fraud election. He got money, so the White House was sold to Obama, the scammer.

herseyK| 11.9.08 @ 4:23PM

Amy - I hope you're just naive. Otherwise I wouldn't bother replying. Have you every been in a town clerk's office and seen what they do? Or a county clerks office - as some states control the voter registration by county? Are there other levels in other states?

Did you verify the source of where you got your info about ACORN ? It's almost word for word out of the DNC office via Acorn to AP. Actually compared to most crimes - I think that 11 out of 37 is quite high a ratio! Notwithstanding the difficulty in making a case in primarily democratic bastions.

Arizona Dave| 11.9.08 @ 8:58PM

A photo ID. presented at the polls is the only sure way to prevent fraud.

stphdys| 11.10.08 @ 1:53PM

I would doubt that they can because the republicans control the software to some of the voting machines, and have privatized the central processing of ballet to a right wing company in Tennesse. Further more acorn can't create actual voters.

Pollwatcher| 11.10.08 @ 5:41PM

A photo ID requirement would be nice, but what is more important is that you have a Republican organization that can put watchers at the polls where fraud is most likely to occur. I know from personal experience that did not happen in Cleveland and probably many other big cities last week. As Ronald Reagan said, "Trust but verify!"

guywhothinksforhimself| 11.13.08 @ 11:30AM

"I would doubt that they can because the republicans control the software to some of the voting machines, and have privatized the central processing of ballet to a right wing company in Tennesse. Further more acorn can't create actual voters. "

Are you kidding me?! What next, the Republicans control what you eat, what you spend your money on, where you shit, how you vote... this list could go on. Wake up America and stop making excuses! Anyone who is trying to manipulate an election is not a TRUE American and thus trying to abolish the democracy this country was founded on. I wish more people would think for themselves instead of conforming to a particular party's beliefs. Hell I know 75% of my friends knew absolutely nothing about either candidate but voted for Obama because that's what everyone else was doing (keep in mind we're talking college students).

/end rant

John| 1.9.09 @ 11:58PM

I'm from Illinois which isn't saying much but I do feel feel much better that the clowns have taken over the state of minnesota, we have a prosector named pretty boy fitzgerald, maybe he should take a look at this guy ritchie, with the way things are going for corrupt politicians these days, maybe they could open a play pen in a prison wing just to accommodate our glorious leaders,

CommieBlaster| 12.5.09 @ 9:53AM

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