Sound Politics: Bad Seed

July 26, 2007

Bad Seed

The King County Canvassing Board this morning cancelled the registrations of 1,762 "voters" who had been fraudulently registered by ACORN:

The board took the action after senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Stephen Hobbs told the board that six signature gatherers hired by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, had admitted filling out registration forms with names they found in phone books last October. The canvassers filled out the forms while sitting around a table at a Seattle Public Library, Hobbs said.

More below.

UPDATE: The King County Prosecutor has filed felony charges against 7 ACORN workers. And in light of today's Supreme Court ruling, that's a net loss of 7 ACORN voters!

Postman has more.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 26, 2007 11:36 AM | Email This

Comments

1. I'm a little confused about what they did. How is it that they picked registrants out of the phonebook, and - of over 1,000 names - not a single one ended up voting? How is that possible?

Posted by: Benjamin Johnstone-Anderson on July 26, 2007 12:04 PM

2. Hooray for Maleng's office! A step toward having cleaner elections. ACORN is a disgrace.

If a dem gets into the prosector's office, be forewarned all that this kind of thing will be ignored or swept under the carpet and ACORN will be free to defraud to its heart's content. Dems, prove me wrong if I am. I'd love to be wrong about that.

Posted by: Misty on July 26, 2007 12:47 PM

3. But Mike McKay couldn't find any evidence of fraud. Guess he just didn't know where (or have the inclination) to look...

Posted by: arthur on July 26, 2007 02:28 PM

4. @ #1

Because they didn't sign the card with a paw print.

Posted by: chris on July 26, 2007 02:45 PM

5. To Poster No. 3, Arthur: I believe the see-no-evil former federal prosecutor's name is JOHN McKay. He deserved to be fired. As for ACORN, I think it should be disbanded.

Posted by: Marilyn on July 26, 2007 03:14 PM

6. To Poster No. 3, Arthur: I believe the see-no-evil former federal prosecutor's name is JOHN McKay. He deserved to be fired. As for ACORN, I think it should be disbanded.

Posted by: Marilyn on July 26, 2007 03:16 PM

7. Yes prosecute, and I hope Misty is wrong.

I heard this on the radio, 710 KIRO and they totally suppressed that it was Acorn.

As far as Acorn repsonsible, I think if any of their supervisers knew they should go down too.

Posted by: Seattle Democrat on July 26, 2007 04:37 PM

8. #4,

I know your comment was meant non-seriously, but I suppose I understand, now. There would have been a signature mismatch in every case. So, it is possible that some of these people intended to vote but were unable to because - although registered - they had the wrong signature on file? Which means that this was not only a case of potential fraud, but also of disenfranchisement?

Posted by: Benjamin Johnstone-Anderson on July 26, 2007 04:42 PM

9. Two questions I have: Why would they do this? If they were picking random names out of the phone book then the goal could not have been to actually cast fraudulent votes, as the voters would have been scattered all over the city. They would have had to keep track of who they registered, look up the polling places and then drive to each location to cast votes. That doesn't seem plausible to me. It makes more sense that they were low-level hires being paid to collect registrations ($1 or $2 a piece) and just defrauded ACORN to get cash, making that organization a victim as well. I'm not defending ACORN, just speculating.

Also, sitting at a table at a Seattle PUBLIC Library? No one saw it and thought... what are they doing?

Posted by: AD on July 26, 2007 05:21 PM

10. I believe it's obvious that this group wanted the cash and their ACORN handlers wanted insulation in case they were caught, not unlike the 400 fake registrations filed by other ACORN folks at a homeless shelter in Tacoma. Having the common address of the homeless shelter, it would take only one "motivated" individual to collect the ballots at the shelter, fill them out and return them. The only reason the Tacoma group was caught is that the ballots sat around too long and were returned undeliverable to the elections division. ACORN and Project Vote are suppose to have internal controls and verification to avoid just this kind of thing. Apparently ACORN has the same problem across the country. The really disturbing part is that as a State we have NO IDEA how much corruption of our voter rolls has already taken place through groups like these.

Posted by: Smokie on July 26, 2007 05:41 PM

11. But at probably at least 20 fake ACORN Nutroots ballots per ACORN Nut, that's a net loss of 140 votes. Enough to cost the Queen her office.

Posted by: Jeff B. on July 26, 2007 07:01 PM

12. John McKay? John McKay? Hello ---- John?? Is there still no evidence of voter fraud?

Posted by: Todd Herman on July 26, 2007 09:01 PM

13. John McKay? John McKay? Hello ---- John?? Is there still no evidence of voter fraud?

Posted by: Todd Herman on July 26, 2007 09:01 PM

14. Last week, I was puzzled about why Jenny Durkan endorsed Dan Satterberg for his King County Prosecuting Attorney election. Now I guess we cam surmise what the quid pro quo may have been:

The defendants, who were paid employees and supervisors of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, concocted the scheme as an easy way to get paid, not as an attempt to influence the outcome of elections, King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg said.

"This was an act of vandalism upon the voter rolls of King County," Satterberg said.

Vandalism, last time I checked, was a misdemeanor, not a felony.

Jenny Durkan scores a win for ACORN, ACORN gets off (relatively) scot-free with no organizational charges or prosecution (and left to continue to run amuck in King County), and Satterberg gets an endorsement that flies in the face of the state Democrat party.

RICO-statute crimes, anyone...? The least they could have done was an injunction to prevent ACORN from any more operations in King County. But for the paltry sum of $25,000, it's business as usual (pocket change for SEIU).

Posted by: Cryptometaphor on July 26, 2007 09:40 PM

15. Re: the signature and keeping track of the addresses etc -- ever hear of a xerox machine ??? keeping a copy of the registration forms and the 'signature' would be like falling off a greased log --

Re: democrats not being able to win elections w/o fraud -- Kennedy/Johnson. Carter barely won, dam Perot stuffed the clintoons down our throat -- Cantwell beating Gorton, and of course the queen Frausoire.

Posted by: Bill on July 27, 2007 07:42 AM

16. FRAUDoire -- that is

Posted by: Bill on July 27, 2007 07:45 AM

17. The ACORN Website says it registered 1,100,000. new voters for the 2004 election cycle. How many in Washington? How many sympathetic voters stuffed provisionals for ACORN?

Posted by: Smokie on July 27, 2007 08:07 AM

18. King County, the PI, and the Secretary of State are manipulating another issue well past the stupid zone. Todays article in the PI makes no sense at all. It reads:

"This is the worst case of voter-registration fraud in the history of the state of Washington, Secretary of State Sam Reed said at a news conference.

But the scheme had nothing to do with an attempt to manipulate elections...."

This wording by itself is so blatantly manipulative I don't know what else to say.

Posted by: TiredOfTheGames on July 27, 2007 09:52 AM