ACORN workers charged with forging voter registrations

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala today charged seven employees of ACORN -- the left-leaning Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- with forgery and election law violations, saying they filed hundreds of fraudulent voter registrations during last year's general election.

The charges are part of a continuing investigation of ACORN, which has been targeted for election fraud in several other states where similar, fake voter registrations were filed by hourly employees apparently attempting to meet daily registration quotas in order to be paid.

In some states -- including Pennsylvania -- registration quotas are illegal. In Nevada, which has a similar statute, the district attorney in Las Vegas on Monday charged ACORN, its former Nevada field director and former regional director for voter registration with filing thousands of "garbage" registrations in order to meet an illegal daily quota of 20 new voters.

ACORN officials have denied those charges.

The district attorney in Allegheny is exploring whether a similar quota system was in place here.


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09127/968466-100.stm

[grantcart]

1. and yet not a single case of actual voter fraud

I wonder if this also came about because of ACORN's own notification to authorities of questionable registrations?

[backscatter712]

2. Exactly. ACORN itself alerted authorities about those registrations.

Of course, when the righttards on FIXED News screech about ACORN, they omit this fact...

[grantcart]

4. They were also required by law to submit the registrations - even if

some jerk put "Mickey Mouse" on the registraton.

[backscatter712]

5. They did, putting the suspected fraudulent ones in a separate pile,

and duly alerting election officials that they thought those registrations were fraudulent.

ACORN followed the law and did the right thing.

But like I said, the righttards like to omit facts when screeching about them.

[gratuitous]

9. Bingo - a crime if you do, a crime if you don't

The whole process is designed for prosecutorial jiggery-pokery, with district attorneys deciding whether to prosecute voter registration folks with either failing to submit every registration, even the clearly fraudulent ones, or failing to weed out the clearly fraudulent ones. So the charges are sensationalized, billboarded on Faux, and ACORN takes another public relations hit. When the charges don't pan out, the DA harrumphs that justice was hood-winked, repeats the now discredited charges, and goes on his merry way.

Meanwhile, actual instances of suppressing voter turnout, robocall-jacking, vote caging and the rest of the bag of Republican dirty tricks to unpunished for election cycle after election cycle before they finally nail some low-level flunky and make him pay a $100 fine.

[No Elephants]

10. ACORN has been a favorite target for a long time. The Pubs are getting more and more

desperate.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

3. And so begins the next Fox news cycle.

They won't mention the phony registrations wouldn't affect the actual vote.

[GoneOffShore]

7. They watch FOX and as everyone knows

The FOX is a common carrier of rabies, a virus that leaves its victims foaming at the mouth and causes paranoia and hallucinations.

Posted in another thread

[MasonJar]

6. And what of Jeb Bush eliminating 70,000+ legitimate voters before 2000

election? And the fraud of Deibold machines which disenfranchised or altered the votes of millions? Too chicken feed for them? I am so sick of PUGs.

[Mz Pip]

8. It's not voter fraud

unless Mickey Mouse shows up to vote. The RW keeps referring to this as voter fraud when it is not.

If a worker forged signatures or made up signatures then they should be fired. ACORN did what it was supposed to do and report the phoney registrations.

The RW can demonize an organization that works to provide low income people with information that might lead to empowerment. It may be bogus but when has that stopped them?

[No Elephants]

11. Actually, if Mickey shows up, there may not be any fraud either, as long as he is

a resident of the district. If Mickey tries to vote in the wrong district, that's pretty much Mickey's doing, not ACORN's.

[No Elephants]

12. I am confused. If registration quotas are illegal, why is ACORN using them? It's not

voter fraud, but it does violate the election law. I can see why. The quotas encourage the fakes and the city or town has to process the fakes, so they are a drain on public resources.

Is the law a surprise to ACORN?

[grantcart]

13. just a few lazy supervisors who tried to get by without walking the streets with the

people to know who was doing what.

Again if somebody turns in a registration with the name Mickey Mouse on it ACORN is required by law to submit it.

When they do, and flag it as suspicious, they get blamed even though no real voter registration fraud took place (unless you include a prank as fraud) and no voter fraud has even been alleged.

This is a smear campaign against ACORN without merit.

[No Elephants]

14. Thanks, but the DA is not even alleging

voter fraud. Thatt is not the charge against ACORN.

The law says an outfit like ACORN may not set quotas for its workers. The allegation is that ACORN sets a quota for it workers of 20 registrations per day. It's very simple. Eithe ACORN sets a quota for its workers or not,. If it sets them, it's breaking the law. If it doesn't set them, the DA won't be able to prove his case. It's that simple. ACORN is not being charging with faking anything. Quotas, not fraud.

As for the individual workers, the ones who did fake the registrations, they are breaking the election law, too. Not voter fraud. Election law. Election laws are broader than only voter fraud. And they forged signatures, so they are being charged with forgery. Nothing about either of those things is trumped up.