-
Leftists Off-Message: Liberal Think Tank Praises Maggie Thatcher
April 11, 2013 | 0 comments
-
Obama’s Gun-Grabbing Judge Nominee Implodes
March 28, 2013 | 1 comment
-
Obama’s Radical, Tasteless Defilement of 9/11
September 9, 2011 | 5 comments
-
Vadum vs Thom Hartmann on Registering the Poor to Vote (Cloward-Piven Strategy)
September 8, 2011 | 3 comments
-
Van Jones To Emcee Center for American Progress 9/11 Event?
September 7, 2011 | 4 comments
The Spectacle Blog
In a development that was (unsurprisingly) ignored by the mainstream media, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was convicted of the felony of unlawful “compensation” in the registration of voters. Nevada outlaws compensating voter registration canvassers based on the quantity of registrations. The rationale is that basing pay on how many registrations one can obtain provides a financial incentive for canvassers to invent people and do sloppy work.
ACORN faces a fine of up to —wait for it— a whole $5,000. Two senior ACORN executives who participated in the conspiracy already cut deals with prosecutors and received slaps on the wrist.
Given how many ACORN employees have already been convicted of voter fraud (a blanket term referring to a variety of election-related improprieties) across the nation this conviction of ACORN itself —the first time ACORN has ever been convicted of such an offense— would seem to provide an opening for a federal prosecution under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
I have an op-ed in the Washington Times today on the topic. Here’s the top of it:
Are Mickey Mouse and Mary Poppins registered to vote in Nevada? In a Las Vegas courtroom last week, prosecutors found the fictional characters not guilty but convicted those impersonating them of voter fraud.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the radical left-wing activist group, was convicted in a massive voter-fraud conspiracy. It has been committing identify theft for decades.
ACORN pleaded guilty to unlawful “compensation” for registration of voters, a felony under Nevada law. The plea came after senior ACORN executives Amy Adele Busefink and Christopher Howell Edwards were convicted of providing cash bonuses to voter-registration canvassers for exceeding daily registration quotas. Campaign workers received cash if they registered 21 voters or more. Fittingly, the Las Vegas-based program was called Blackjack.
Mr. Mouse, Ms. Poppins and various celebrities living and dead have been registered to vote over and over again precisely because ACORN has been allowed to get away with polluting the nation’s voter rolls for so long.
Significantly, this is the first time ACORN itself, as opposed to its individual employees, has been convicted of a crime. The fact that the nonprofit entity was found guilty strongly suggests that ACORN’s ambitious voter-fraud schemes were sanctioned at the highest levels.
This is not the first time that ACORN has found itself in legal hot water. […]
For more on ACORN and its intimate ties to the Obama administration, check out my upcoming book, Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts Are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.
View all comments (30) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Matthew Vadum
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/04/15/acorn-obamas-favorite-gangster
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
H/T to National Review Online
ADVERTISEMENT
Oldefarte| 4.15.11 @ 4:14PM
Thank you, Matthew, for this outstanding information. As indicated, this schemes were no doubt SANCTIONED AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Robert Dinkle| 6.25.11 @ 11:07AM
No, nothing was sanctioned at the highest levels. Does the word integrity mean anything to you at all? Do you have one shred of proof anyone in high levels was involved? Then you owe every reader of this article an apology, sir.
Jack| 4.15.11 @ 4:32PM
That certainly explains how a Harry Reid could get re-elected. We need a complete overhaul of our voting system. Allowing homeless to vote is inviting wholesale fraud not to mention not having any skin in the game. Good intentions are great when you don't have a morally corruptible society.
Cris| 4.16.11 @ 11:57AM
With many state governments now in Republican hands, one might think there would be a nation-wide crackdown on voter fraud. But there isn't. Gutless fools won't even act when they have the power.
Andy Texan | 4.16.11 @ 7:15PM
The republican spineless wonders are afraid of criticism from "civil rights' organizations and the press.
Fed Up| 4.17.11 @ 6:03PM
Cris, you are correct. You are making a terribly astute and TELLING comment.
A real citizen would be mortified at even the thought of voting twice (or more), personal ethics trumping any
But it is rampant and done with abandon. And our state legislators know this. Yet do nothing.
This is beyond baffling. This, once more, proves to me the utter craven nature of most politicians (yes, most) and how dangerous ALL of them are for this land we love.
Join the King Street Patriots! (see their web site) "True the Vote!" http://www.kingstreetpatriots.org/
Robert Dinkle| 6.25.11 @ 11:12AM
That is not true Chris. The registrations are on computer and in order to vote twice a person would have to be registered twice and each address is only allowed to to vote at a specific location so how would a person do that? And how many convictions for voting twice? 3-3 each election. Voting twice may have happened in the old days, but with computers it is no longer possible without spending enormous sums of money.
Andrew Keirns| 4.15.11 @ 5:04PM
Pretty soon ACORN will register Charlie Brown, Lucy vanPelt, and the football, and say they are a bi-partisan group and have registered three republicans who keep getting fooled year after year after year after year ...
Matthew Vadum | 4.15.11 @ 5:38PM
Don't give them ideas!
Jack| 4.15.11 @ 9:13PM
Someone WASN'T fooled in Wisconsin!! Haha
Fed Up| 4.17.11 @ 5:57PM
Yes, perhaps. But the recent vote in Wisconsin was so close, it tells you that voter fraud occurred. How many from Minnesota and Illinois crossed the state borders and voted in Wisconsin? We know that they did.
We need fines, felony convictions, prison time, and these miscreants names & faces splashed across all newspapers.
Jack| 4.18.11 @ 11:22PM
No argument here!
Robert Dinkle| 6.25.11 @ 11:15AM
Fed up, you are creating straw men. In order to vote in Wisconsin you have to be registered in Wisconsin. Do you think people can make up addresses that don't exist, or try and use an address that is already registered to someone else? Votor fraud like you say is not happening. The electronic machines on the other hand can be hacked. Easily, and the vote flipped.
PattyMor| 4.15.11 @ 5:37PM
The slap on the wrist penalties are the reason why this corrupt organization continues to just keep on keeping on. The budget deal included money for ACORN. Surprised? No the Democrats need voter fraud to win elections. So until they are shut down, expect the voter fraud to continue.
William J. Peria| 4.15.11 @ 8:20PM
As I understand it, the law requires that if voter registration forms have been filled in, then they must be submitted to the authorities. This makes sense to me. Otherwise, illicit canvassers could lead people to believe that they had been registered to vote, when in fact their forms had been disposed of. In places without same-day registration, this would be a way to influence an election.
In this case, again, as I understand it, ACORN canvassers had filled out bogus registration forms and turned them in to ACORN, in order to earn a little extra money. ACORN officials noticed this, flagged the bogus forms, and submitted them to the county authorities as required by law.
It should probably have been obvious that paying canvassers this way would lead to this kind of problem. And, again, as I understand it, paying them this way is against the law. Sure enough, ACORN broke the law and is being punished for that.
But two things seem weird to me. First, can you really call this fraud? It's a bad way to pay canvassers, yes. But it was ACORN officials who brought the bogus registrations to the attention of county officials. That does not sound like fraud.
Second, do you honestly believe that fake registrations are a way to steal an election? Isn't it obvious that the way to do that is to control and corrupt the means of counting?
Lastly, in this country we are currently having a debate about the proper role of government. What things should we do cooperatively through the government and what things are better handled by the private sector? How should we pay for thing things we do cooperatively, and how should the burden be distributed? I would humbly and politely submit that these issues are what pushed ACORN's conviction off the front pages, rather than any kind of "unsurprising" (to use your word) conspiracy of silence.
Jack| 4.15.11 @ 9:11PM
Actually, William, I call this treason; of course, we all know that you Leftists hate this country anyway.
BTW--whadyya' think about the Prosser re-election in Wisconsin? LOL
big bob| 4.16.11 @ 9:58AM
If you HONESTLY do not understand how fraud takes place with illegitimate voter registrations, then you really don't understand the process. I suggest you do some homework and find out just how the registrations work. If you DO understand and still claim that fake registrations are not real venues for fraud, you are most likely a troll. Either way, you are no help in solving the problem.
William J Peria| 4.16.11 @ 11:18AM
Hi Big Bob,
Thanks for responding.
I can understand how, if ACORN had turned in the registrations without flagging them as bogus, that would have been fraudulent. And if county officials had also failed to recognize that the registrations were bogus, then people claiming to be Mickey Mouse, or one of the Dallas Cowboys etc. could have shown up and voted under those names. And since we don't do any kind of "purple-finger" procedure here (like we've seen recently in Iraq and elsewhere), that could have led to a "one man, many votes" scenario. Is that the scenario you have in mind?
This hypothetical scenario ( it's not what ACORN was charged with) would of course be fraud. But it would be a silly way to influence the outcome of an election. You would have to involve far too many people in the monkey business. Each of your bogus voters has to at least appear to be voting only once. So, in person, that means a new polling place for each bogus vote. If it takes, very optimistically, 20 minutes to vote, that means 36 bogus votes in a 12 hour day, from each of your (highly mobile) conspirators. I suppose absentee would be easier to pull off, but it definitely also leaves more of a paper trail.
The bottom line is, I have never understood why this particular kind of small-time fraud, if it even exists at all today (it's not what ACORN was charged with), seems so important to some people (like the author of this article).
A much more likely scenario would be a corruption of the counting process, which, in some cases, would require only one lone conspirator.
I think that I am helping to solve the problem with our elections, by correctly identifying what the biggest problem actually is.
Jack| 4.16.11 @ 7:15PM
Correction: Conservatives are helping to solve the problem of Liberal election theft by doing all we can to defund and destroy Marxist hate groups like ACORN. Prosser is our first victory!
Obama is the Community Organizer in Chief.
Nite| 4.15.11 @ 11:06PM
Requiring people to present a picture ID to vote, will cut down a lot on fraud and abuse of the absentee ballots. It is one thing for our Military personnel, but quite another for individuals living in a town, and is not disabled. Picture ID should be used to register to vote period.
Fed Up| 4.17.11 @ 6:17PM
Nite, you are correct. And let me add full COLOR photos on those IDs that are either 1) a driver's license, or 2) the same sized, same looking card but for those who choose not to drive (like some seniors who feel/are unsafe driving)
No other picture ID permitted. NONE.
When you work a poll station, it is amazing what people want to try to present. Old college photo IDs, a library card (with photo) but outdated, a US passport (think about it....this does not qualify for what you need at a polling station).
What adult in America over the age of 18 is without the drivers license state photo ID?
If I need that same color photo ID to purchase an airline ticket (and board), get on a passenger rail train, buy tobacco products, fill out/pay for a state lottery ticket, but sporting events tickets, purchase alcohol, do routine banking, check out a book at the local library......
THEN WHY is this same color photo ID "just going way toooooo far" when it comes time to LEGALLY vote?
ALL states MUST require color photo ID -- at a minimum.
In Texas no photo ID required. Ditto for Virginia, no ID at all is required in Virginia to vote. Georgia, too? I am learning that many states do NOT require photo ID to vote. ABSURD!!
Join like-minded real citizens, the King Street Patriots: http://www.kingstreetpatriots.org/ "True the Vote!"
Frank7888| 4.16.11 @ 12:40PM
I believe some positive proof of citizenship is needed in order to register to vote. Then I think people should vote in person and present the same proof. I think the opportunity for fraud exists at three points in time: registration, voting (particularly with vote-by-mail) and in the counting. Extend the polling from just one day to 2 or 3, one of which is a Saturday or Sunday. I think this would result in greater turnout.
Oldefarte| 4.16.11 @ 1:38PM
This Acorn-type fraud has been and will continue to be allowed because of [1] DEMOCRATS and [2] MSM and [3] LABOR UNIONS!!!!!!!
rdman| 4.16.11 @ 1:40PM
If the ACORN program Blackjack has been found fraudulent and illegal, then shouldn't the election of Harry Reid also be found fraudulent and invalidated, prompting a ballot recount &/or a special re-election??
Matthew Vadum | 4.16.11 @ 4:37PM
The charges stem from the 2008 election, not the 2010 election. ACORN apparently halted the program after authorities got wise to them. For more information see
http://www.lasvegassun.com/new.....employees/
rdman| 4.17.11 @ 12:14AM
So... the 2010 election of Reid was squeaky clean just because authorities got wise in 2009?? No rigged ballot machines programmed to vote for Reid regardless of other choices made in 2010? No tactics similar to Blackjack with a different label in 2010? And, apparently, no investigation and findings of fraud in 2010... wow, old Harry really got Nevada authorities by the short hairs, eh?
Fed Up| 4.17.11 @ 6:25PM
rdman, you are correct. I am sure that the Dems/Liberals/leftists/secular socialists Voter Fraud Playbook is still current and all the lessons learned from 2008 & 2010 will be "in play" for 2012.
Reid's fraudulent reelection Nov. 2, 2010 should be what a FBI investigates and brings to SWIFT justice.
Please do not forget College Democrats in the list of evildoers when it comes time for elections. They openly encourage students to 1) vote absentee ballot back home, and 2) vote locally at the nearby campus polling station.
When working the polls at either place, one has no idea that the same student/individual has voted twice on the same day. All the more easier when the student is from far away from the college/and out-of-state student.
William J. Peria| 4.16.11 @ 4:22PM
Hi Nite and Frank7888,
I agree those are some good ideas. We will have to be a little careful with the picture ID thing, because of our history of writing laws that actually functioned to make voting harder for some groups. For example, we couldn't require a passport, because not everyone has one; something else would have to do the job too. But I think those issues, and similar ones with absentee ballots, could be worked out, and if it increased the level of public trust in elections, that would be a very good thing.
I would be in favor of voting machines that issued a receipt, imprinted with a unique anonymized code and a record of your votes. You could then either shred that sucker on the spot, or use it to look at a publicly available spreadsheet (after polls had closed) to confirm that your vote was recorded and counted correctly. With enough people doing such checking, vote counting fraud (the kind that worries me most) would seem to be very difficult.
My point is, nearly everybody wants to be able to trust election results; let's work to get it done.
Jack| 4.16.11 @ 7:17PM
Yeah! How about those Prosser election results!? Now, that's change I can believe in. Ha!
Robert Dinkle| 6.25.11 @ 11:03AM
ACORN was not convicted of "VOTER FRAUD," It was violation of Nevada's law against paying for registrations. The registrations were almost all valid and in any large scale operation of course you are going to get a few errors, but to call this voter fraud shows it is you who are being fraudulent.