Since there is so much interest in the group, I thought I should provide this brief summary of their recent legal problems in our state.
One of the most serious cases involving ACORN came out of Seattle, where prosecutors in July 2007 indicted seven ACORN workers. They were accused of submitting phony registration forms in what Washington's secretary of state, Sam Reed, called "the worst case of voter-registration fraud" in the state's history. (Three of the seven pleaded guilty later that year.) The list of "voters" registered in Washington included former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, New York Times columnists Frank Rich and Tom Friedman, and actress Katie Holmes, as well as nonexistent people with nonexistent names such as Stormi Boys and Fruto Boy. The addresses used for the fake names were local homeless shelters. Given that the state doesn't require the showing of any identification before voting, it is entirely possible that people could have voted illegally using some of those names.
Local officials refused to accept the registrations because they had been delivered after the 2006 registration deadline of October 7. Initially, ACORN officials demanded that the registrations be accepted and threatened to sue King County (Seattle) officials if they were tossed out. But in early November 2006 — just after four ACORN registration workers were indicted on charges of fraud in Kansas City, Missouri — the group reversed its position and said the registrations should be rejected. But by then, local election workers had a reason to scrutinize the forms carefully, and they uncovered the fraud. Of the 1,805 names submitted by ACORN, over 97 percent were found to be invalid. (pp. 50-51)
(Fund is out of date on one point. Washington now does require identification at the polls. But false IDs are not that difficult to acquire — or so I am told.)
There is much of interest in this story — and there is much that is still obscure. Apparently, whoever hired the ACORN workers was able to select cheaters — without, as far as I can tell, even one miss. That requires either a remarkable talent, or personal knowledge.
And the motives of the ACORN officials are, as so often, unknown. For instance, did they know how bad this batch of registrations was? Did they deliberately hold back the registration forms until after the deadline, hoping to cause a controversy and get them through that way? And why did ACORN change their position and abandon their request that the late forms be accepted?
Posted by Jim Miller at October 22, 2008 07:51 AM | Email ThisJim M., today Fox reported that even the New York Times is going after ACORN and its relationship to Obama, which is extensive.
Sheesh, I wish Obama could have been vetted earlier than one week before the election. Impeachment anyone?
Posted by: swatter on October 22, 2008 08:44 AMWilliam Ayers and Wade Rathke were fellow members of the communist SDS in the 60's. Ayers, and others, went on to found the terrorist Weather Underground, and Rathke founded and has run ACORN for 37 years! Between the two of them, they control or influence the largest anonymity-seeking neo-communist organization in the United States. Obama is their movement's front man. Obama is endorsed by Castro and Chavez. Simply Google: Ayers Rathke Obama. This is not rocket science, Miller. Try to be more proactive next time. You're too little, too late. Now, research ACORN's Washington state president and his connections, if you want to redeem yourself. Disgusting!
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/10/17/wade-rathke-acorns-founder-ayers-compatriot/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH7kT4xwddg
The new Progressives are gleeful. They are on-board with the Marxism, in fact some of them are downright proud. And old school Democrats and clueless Independents don't know what they have bargained for in backing Obama. But they will find out soon enough.
Posted by: Jeff B. on October 22, 2008 10:12 AMMy personal opinion is that we need to improve our election law, so that the state must verify that each candidate meets the minimum requirements. This seems to be a big hole in our state election laws. Under current law, Osama bin Laden could run (if some party nominated him) and the State of Washington would put him on the ballot. I don't know about you, but this seems like a problem to me.
Posted by: Bird on October 22, 2008 10:21 AMHe is saying it's so hard to vote these day, but thanks to ACORN it's much better.
(are you kidding me)
Gezzzz
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on October 22, 2008 10:32 AM
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93VM4PO0&show_article=1
Oct 22 01:23 PM US/Eastern
By LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press Writer
The Voter Fraud Squad is a non-partisan group blog that aims to provide information related to voter fraud across the country.
The Voter Integrity Project is a non-partisan project to help the American voter report and expose incidences of vote fraud and vote suppression, in order to ensure a more fair, open, and democratic election process.Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on October 22, 2008 10:49 AM
You can read more about it at http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20081014/BLOG13/810149964
Posted by: Paula on October 22, 2008 11:20 AMNot doing so would be a violation in most jurisdictions.
In a time where there is such a public spotlight on irregularities in voter registration anyone who blatenly disregards the rules should be inelligible.
I would hardly call trying to enforce the existing laws on the book "intimidation"
Next thing you know it (and I) will be called racist!!
Posted by: daveo on October 22, 2008 12:30 PMdemo kid
All facts
David Matthews
Seattle Jew
tc
Veeeeeeery interesting. Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by: Crusader on October 22, 2008 12:36 PMEither you can prove you are legit or you can't.
If it turns out that someone questioned is indeed in violation of registration law then they can correct that and vote. If it is too late, then they have learned a very important lesson.
Again with all of this ACORN stuff in the news why would anybody have a problem with showing that they are indeed qualified and properly registered to vote?
Posted by: daveo on October 22, 2008 01:08 PM/demo kid
Posted by: Crusader on October 22, 2008 01:14 PMBecause I have a job, moron. And while it gives me the flexibility to post sane rebuttals to your spewings sometimes, other times I need to work to put food on the table. Your excuse? Are you just a layabout all the time?
Shocked that liberals have a work ethic? That we actually care about personal responsibility? Sheesh.
Posted by: demo kid on October 22, 2008 01:24 PM@25: Again with all of this ACORN stuff in the news why would anybody have a problem with showing that they are indeed qualified and properly registered to vote?
Let me turn this around. In a democracy where voting is an important expression of public sentiment, why should people voluntarily register? Why not simply have a system to keep people automatically registered? Why not fine those folks that don't? This would fix all the problems both sides are presenting...
Posted by: demo kid on October 22, 2008 01:35 PMACORN is the fabrication of voters with the implied intent of several tens of thousands of those fraudulent voters effecting the outcome of a close election.
How does this compare even to what Dave Ross says?
Duffman, I, for one (to be on the record), am for voting in person, showing ID and signing the forms. So, from what you say, I would support the efforts of anyone, no matter the party, to insure that the people voting actually live in the district they are voting. But, that is an ideal world and we don't live in one.
I am saddened that newly homeless may become disenfranchised for this one election and I wish they could vote (I want all eligible voters to have the right to vote) but I have to weigh that with the efforts to insure that only eligible voters vote in their district. I need more information and that more information is surely more than what Dave Ross popped off on.
FYI, in the 1976 election, this young traveller moved from Bellevue to Seattle (I can't remember which direction since I made several of them), I reregistered at one of those booths during the U-District fair. When I showed up to vote in Bellevue after leaving work early in Seattle, I was told , "sorry, Charlie, but you have to go back to your old district in Seattle to vote." Not cool.
Posted by: swatter on October 22, 2008 01:40 PMWith the exception of "d" above, all other claims were proven false and "d" only happened at one office in one city by one small group of people. Hardly an effort of widespread voter intimidation.
On the flip side, look at the election of 2004 in East St Louis and Milwaukee for prosecutions of actual election fraud and guess which party they were involved with. You can also check out the prosecutions in Alabama and find the same thing. Go further back in time to Florida and there you can find more of the same.
Returning to Duffer's point, if you qualify joke e-mails saying election day is Wednesday the 5t as intimidation, then he has a point. But the overwhelming amount of fact checking (with actual verification) supports Jim's theory of distributed voter fraud.
Posted by: Ken on October 22, 2008 01:51 PMIf there is equal INTIMIDATION on both sides, then what is YOUR comment on the impact of adding a 3rd force that is 97% fraudulent?
Tell us again the name of the ACORN-comparable rightie fraud squad?
10 22 08 P / P
If you find a similar organization like ACORN purporting to further the Republican agenda, I'll go hand in hand with you to take them out. But, until you do, ACORN is, was and ever shall be, over the top. It needs to be culled from human experience. If you can't admit even that, then, well, you are too far gone to save.
Posted by: swatter on October 22, 2008 02:33 PMAm I the only one that remembers that this much maligned "butterfly ballot" was designed and approved by a democrat in good standing, not a republican?
(This is very, very well documented.)
I would never say that there might not have been some problems with people who meant to vote for Gore voting for Buchanan. (I'd also never say that somewhere else int he country a similar ballot might have netted Gore votes that would have gone elsewhere.)
What I can say - and history backs me up - is that this definitely wasn't a "republican conspiracy" as much the Koz Kids and Horses ass blog types would like it to be.
Posted by: johnny on October 22, 2008 02:40 PMAm I the only one that remembers that this much maligned "butterfly ballot" was designed and approved by a democrat in good standing, not a republican?
(This is very, very well documented.)
I would never say that there might not have been some problems with people who meant to vote for Gore voting for Buchanan. (I'd also never say that somewhere else int he country a similar ballot might have netted Gore votes that would have gone elsewhere.)
What I can say - and history backs me up - is that this definitely wasn't a "republican conspiracy" as much the Koz Kids and Horses ass blog types would like it to be.
Posted by: johnny on October 22, 2008 02:40 PMI'm calling a BIG BS here folks.
Gore lost, simple as that.
PS. Hey Duffie.. that radio show your listening to about the REP stopping the voting for dem's. Got any proof or is it just hear-say?
Anyone gone to court?
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on October 22, 2008 04:05 PMTitanic's last mystery revealed!
For years the admiralty and maritime scholars have reviewed every statistic regarding the late great ship. The simple facts were the ship sailed with 2224 men, women and children aboard. Of that, 1503 perished while only 711 survived.
One of the last great mysteries was the previously unexplained fact that of the 711 survivors 704 were registered Republicans.
It had been only a theory for years, but recent events in Florida
confirm earlier suspicions!!!! All Republicans were able to follow the "arrows" to the life rafts!
If you vote for Obama and the market stays stuck...blame yourself.
Posted by: Mr. Cynical on October 22, 2008 07:59 PMObama trained ACORN leaders in Chicago.
Obama is a communist.
Posted by: 5.62 on October 22, 2008 08:35 PM