Raided ACORN Office Supported Work Release Program; Likely To Draw GOP Fire
An affidavit, filed by a Nevada law enforcement investigator in connection with the seizure Tuesday morning of a voter registration group's computers and files, alleges that the group contracted last summer with an agent for the Nevada Bureau of Corrections to employ work-release inmates as registration gatherers as part of a prisoner "transition" or "re-entry" program.
The affidavit (copy here), filed with a Nevada court by a joint federal-state task force in order to obtain a search warrant executed Tuesday against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now ("ACORN"), acknowledges that the inmates were employed as part of a State of Nevada prison-to-civilian transition program, and that they performed their work under strict guidelines, including "constant supervision and no access to telephones or internet." According to the affidavit, at least some of the inmates lived at the Casa Grande Transitional Housing Project, operated by the Nevada Department of Corrections.
I was unable to obtain a comment from ACORN by the time of posting, but in a telephone conversation with me Tuesday evening, Mike Slater, the Executive Director of Project Vote, which partnered with ACORN to register new voters in Nevada, acknowledged that ACORN had employed work-release inmates as part of the state rehabilitation program:
"Nevada ACORN participated in a program with the Nevada State Department of Corrections.... [T]heir performance was no different from any other workers'. *** The Nevada Department of Corrections actually reached out to ACORN and asked them to consider using their people for that."
Notably, the criminal investigator's affidavit does not allege that any of the work-release prisoners engaged in registration fraud. In fact, it states that one of the inmates rose to become a supervisory "team leader" who gave the investigator helpful information, including a detailed explanation of ACORN's quality-control program to identify potentially fraudulent registrations, such as telephoning every person registered to confirm their identity and checking for duplicate registrations.
Nevertheless, in an election that is becoming increasingly negative, the hiring of prisoners by what Republican National Committee communications director Danny Diaz has labeled "a Democrat-leaning group" is likely to become the focus of campaign rhetoric. Diaz suggested last week that ACORN's hiring of ex-convicts in Wisconsin who had completed their terms of probation or parole and who were once again eligible to vote exposed voters to the risk of identity theft or other harm, though he later admitted under questioning by reporters that he knew of no actual instances of identity theft.
In connection with the Wisconsin program, ACORN's national Communications Director, Charles D. Jackson, said the group tries to offer a second chance to rehabilitated criminals, saying, "As a rule, ACORN doesn't discriminate against former felons who have completed their sentence and served their debt to society. ACORN believes in second chances when earned." Project Vote's Slater offered a similar justification for the Nevada program Tuesday: "For individuals who don't really represent a risk to the public, I think that it's actually very good that ACORN gives people a second chance."
Slater also noted the "no good deed goes unpunished" irony in the situation:
"It would be interesting if our participation in a program encouraged by the Nevada Department of Corrections somehow led the Secretary of State to raid our offices."
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Sounds like ACORN has a very bad model.
It pays people a low wage to meet a quota of registered voters per day.
That's a HUGE problem from the get-go, because it gives incentive for these economically poor workers to meet their quote, even if they did not authentically. So they will register a Johnny John and sign it, when Johnny John is the name of pizza restaurant and no such person exists.
Really, I think the problems with this organization can be traced 99% to that. And again, it's a terrible place to put these poor workers.
Where I work, I have prevented a similar organization from registering voters, and set it such that only organizations who rely on volunteers can work on the grounds.
Thankfully, there are clear and effective mechanisms, at several points, several layers of protection, to weed out these fake voter registrations.
Not that Johnny John will be showing up to vote, anyway, but you get my point.
One more reason why an ID should be required before a ballot is cast. One person-One Vote. I am reminded of the famous phrase, "vote early and often" from Chicago mayor Richard Dailey as well as other famous Chicago persons including Al Capone. Humm Chicago and voter fraud seem to go hand and hand. Who else do we know from Chicago?..
I would not be suprised that the GOP has something to do with this story. They mentioned "something big" to change the election.
While it is true that in many states the GOP has fought any attempt to make registration easier, based on the grounds of possible voter fraud, ACORN is really a liberal group totally supporting Obama and it seems they believe that their approach to registration fraud will make the election this November more valid than the last two presidential elections. In 2000 the Supreme Court actually over rode the Florida Supreme Court and decided who the winner was: George Bush. In 2004 there were something like 10,000 to 30,000 ballots that were somehow lost or invalid, so determined by an ardent conservative Secretary of the State of Ohio. ACORN is taking a different approach but nonetheless a very disturbing one that supports "outing" the privacy of inmates in order to maintain a valid registration. Not that much different in some ways than losing ballots but perhaps under the cover of legality seems better. Americans have to decide whether they truly want a democratic approach to casting ballots or some sort of rigged way to make sure the powerful succeed.
See M.S. Bellows, Jr.'s Profile
"one that supports "outing" the privacy of inmates in order to maintain a valid registration"
??
Having ex-cons register voters "exposed voters to the risk of identity theft or other harm". Right. So I guess I should be leery if Scooter Libby tries to register me to vote. Fair enough.
But what about Nelson Mandela? Is he not an ex-con? Can I trust him not to steal my identity or do me "other harm" when I sign up for the ONE campaign?
Who is this Danny Diaz, anyway? He's the RNC's communications director, but he doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry.
Pablo, Nelson Mandela was a "political candidate", someone who the ruling majority thought was a threat to their power and thus incarcerated for many years. We have to assume....
This is my first time ever hearing about ACORN. I am reading a lot of negative things today about ACORN. If what I am reading is true I think it is time to put ACORN out of the voters registrations business. Its seem like Organization like ACORN does the community more harm than good.
See M.S. Bellows, Jr.'s Profile
Might want to read more before making that decision: http://www
Having read an article earlier today about the raid, I am already aware that ACORN has made every possible effort to get the state of Nevada to verify the accuracy of the signatures & purge as well as prosecute fraudulent entries. I know it's more fun to Puff yourself up with indignation like "LibRS" but facts are so damned difficult to argue with.
There have been only 18 cases of voter fraud in the last 5 years.
This ACORN story is so the G.O.P can cry that the election was stolen if McCain loses.
All these people worried about ACORN...wh
http://www
Fox News GOPer John Fund has a temper tantrum after being confronted with GOP "Voter Fraud" Lies. He hungs up @ 15:00:
http://www
Wow. That guy needs to take a Xanax. He was freaking out.. Why do these GOP pundits and writers all seem so d.amn immature?
So let me get this straight. By LAW, ACORN MUST turn in all registration forms, EVEN the ones they feel are suspect and/or not filled out properly - since they cannot invalidate them. So they turn them in. Then, the GOP raises a red herring by claiming that ACORN is turning in fraudelent voter registrations.
However, no one in the MSM takes the time out to explain that the LAW states that ACORN MUST turn in all these suspect forms?
I guess that sort of crap happens when the whole machinery is run by one group of corrupt people - the GOP.
The story of Monica Ray
Monica is a fast little lady. She is registered to vote in 8 (Eight) deifferent voting precints, AND, she has 4 (four) social security numbers.
My, my, my Monica. You do get around. How many Monicas are out there?
..........
We have sunken to a new low. Use to, it was only small third world countries who couldn't have a true legal election. Now we cannot have one. I've seen it right here in my area. People (democrats) are stealing elections. Dead people voting, i mean, the whole nine yards.
We are becoming a country made up of fewer and fewer people working people who are supporting more and more people who choose to live off the system. What happens when every one says the hell with it and decides that they too will live off the government handout programs. One or two things will happen then, we will start voting for people who will cut it out or we'll ride the train until it runs out of gas and then turn in to another third world country where there is no law, no order, no nothing, but chaos.
I'll be prepared for this, unfortunately, many of you liberals will not be. And if you think it can't come to this, you are fooling yourself. Like the old saying goes, any one person is 9 meals away from being desperate enough for a revolution.
Wow. I guess it is a statistical impossibility that there could be MORE than ONE person named;
Monica Ray in the world huh?
Up here in Minnesota, I personally know at least 10 people with the same first and last names (Johnson). They are all registered to vote, in at least 6 districts.
I guess you should turn me in too you whack job troll.
VERY WELL SAID
See M.S. Bellows, Jr.'s Profile
If those are your sincere concerns, then I believe in good conscience that you SHOULD vote for Ronald Reagan.
Wait -- has something changed in 28 years?
libRS,
Please, CHECK THE FACTs. Statistically Republicans cannot win elections unless they cheat.
This country is overwhelmingly registered Democrat, MORE EVERY DAY! duh!
HAVE YOU BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO THE WORLD AROUND YOU?
OR DO YOU JUST LISTEN TO RUSH, BILL'O, ins-HANNITY & FOX "news"? duh!
AND IF YOU DO THINK ON YOUR OWN.....WH
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS BEEN IN CONTRIL OF THIS COUNTRY 20 OF THE LAST 30 YEARS. Maybe you remember how they came into power? (2)Kennedys had to be murdered!
BEFORE THEY COULD GET NIXON INTO POWER, and look how well that worked!
MAYBE YOU SHOULD GET AN EDUCATION, you could sure use more facts(less fox!).
WHY WOULD THE BUSH FAMILY SUE (3 expensive times!) ALL THE WAY TO OUR SUPREME COURT IF FACTS (& the voters) WERE IN HIS CAMP?
Remember, his brother was Florida's govenor!, the only state(out of 50!) that had election tampering, enough to SCREW THIS COUNTRY INTO THE GUTTER.
OR DO YOU LIKE BEING A BANANA REPUBLIC?
YOU ARE EITHER RICH OR STOOPID TO VOTE REPUBLICAN, which are you?
Hey, how about this! Jose Martinez is registered over 50 times in one single county in New Mexico!
Jose Martinez is registered hundreds, if not thousands of times throughout the Southwestern states. And he has a different Social Security number with each registration. (I didn't actually verify the last, but using what I believe is a valid political hack technique, I'm making it up).
I don't know if this means anything, but it seems impressive. ;^)
What the R's are going to do is challenge every registration in the files and keep those voters from voting.
They will of course wait until the last minute so 80,000 voters will be turned away.
Yawn.
Yeah, this is really going to be the top issue on the minds of voters who are facing foreclosure or have no health insurance or have lost 40% of the value of their retirement funds. They'll be all over this.
Let me see if I have this right. All the people who have went to jail for voter fraud, and the others that are under indictment while they worked for Acorn, well, it is just another right wing conspiracy??
Try stringing enough words together to come up with a coherent sentence and perhaps you may get answers to your genuine questions. Attacking ACORN for community organizing is a poorly veiled attempt to put a black face on a national problem. Don't believe the hype. ACORN has become the favorite target of the right wing fear factory; an organization on which to place the blame for the whole "mortgage melt down." It is all a bunch of hogwash! If the American economy was so fragile that a single mother missing her sub prime loan payment caused the whole thing to crumble then don't you think the problem has more to do with the fundamentals underlying that economy then whether or not that woman could afford the loan that she was sold? ACORN advocating on behalf of the poor and victimized in our society had little to do with the decisions of AIG executives to engage in high stakes gambling by offering insurance policies on morgage backed securities without putting sufficient funds in reserves to cover the potential losses. Nor did ACORN cause banks to bundle together sub-prime and A-paper loans together, call them mortgage backed securities and sell them to unsuspecting institutional investors. ACORN certainly did not have anything to do with rating agencies rating these mortgage backed securities with a AAA rating when they did not examine the products contained in the bundles to determine the value or strength of the sub-prime loans.
save your bs kool aid for those uneducated enough to believe it. anyone who has researched and had an open mind can see that yes, wall street was part of it, AS WAS, liberals such as franks, dodd, waters, and others who pressured banks, fan and fred to give mortgages to people who had absoutely no means to repay. how insane is that?
I would imagine these prisoners are not violent felons. I have a neighbor that cannot be hired because his probation officers that are sworn to help these guys do eveything to make it hard on them.
All of the prisoners that have paid their debt to society need work. So many business; would rather hire an undocumented worker and pay them the same wage the ex prisoners would get.
If these ex prisoners have been rehabilitaed, they should get a fair chance.
These unemployed men and women will go directly onto Welfare, Medicaid and all such taxpayer paid programs that we all hate so much. Then when that is not a living wage they go back to what got them in jail. Crime.
Republicans other than trying to rip off an election also try to insure that the social programs they pay for are required for the people they discriminate against.
you got that right. social programs that WE pay for. personally i'm tired of "paying for it".
"Social" progams make up a very small portion of our budget...
Why are you not crying about paying for the war in Iraq and all the fraud going on there?
Nevermind, we all know why.
Which social programs are you tired of paying for? Do you even know? Or are you just repeating what Rush and Hannity told you?
THEN MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY YOU FACIST PIG! I'll bet your parents survive on Social Security, & you have claimed unemployment before. Although it's hard to tell, but you appear to have been educated in the U.S. too, OR IS THAT JUST FOR WHITEY'S LIKE YOURSELF? Just admit it, you are a bigot!, just like all McCain supporters.
OTHERWISE YOU WOULD BE VOTING TO PROTECT AMERICAN's by voting Democrat!
The Drudge Report is missing you, you better go now......t
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