Posted on 12/07/2004 8:02:07 AM PST by mn-bush-man
Man Pleads Guilty To Voter Registration Scam
Dec 7, 2004 6:38 am US/Central
Minneapolis (AP)
A 19-year-old St. Louis Park man arrested this fall with hundreds of filled-out voter registration cards in his car told authorities that he forged some signatures to make extra money.
Joshua Reed pleaded guilty Monday in Hennepin County District Court to two felonies. He will be sentenced next month. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors said they would recommend 60 days in the county workhouse, plus 15 days of community service.
County Attorney Amy Klobuchar said Reed admitted he failed to promptly turn over the voter registration cards to the Secretary of State or a county auditor, and he admitted he forged signatures on 18 voter registration cards.
Klobuchar said Reed never intended to use the forgeries to allow anyone to vote twice. Instead, he wanted to increase his earnings -- he told authorities that ACORN paid him $1.50 for each new voter he registered, she said.
"He was trying to get some extra cash for registering voters," Klobuchar said. ACORN, known as Associated Community Organizations for Reform Now, was one of several groups that hired canvassers to register new voters this year.
An ACORN official previously said Reed was paid $1 per registered voter.
"It was very important for the public integrity of our electoral system that somebody, if they do something like this, gets charged, gets convicted and gets consequences," Klobuchar said.
The forgeries were first noticed in June by a Hennepin County elections employee, who found 23 apparent duplicates. County elections officials notified authorities, who began investigating. At that point, ACORN fired Reed.
Reed was stopped in September by police on an unrelated traffic offense. His car was towed because he didn't have a valid driver's license. Boxes of filled-out voter's registration cards were in the trunk, according to the criminal complaint.
For which party?
A 60 day sentence is grossly inadequate for the crime. Could we hope the judge will ignore the recommendation and impose something more appropriate? (Probably not.)
Probably woulda been more prompt if ACORN woulda paid him in cocaine.
If they don't mention the party, that usually means its the Democrats
Shouldn't they mention that ACORN is a democratic group?
It's only ever omitted from articles if it's a Dem who did it.
Same thing happened when I worked on the 1980 US Census as a teenager. Canvassers were hired to scour neighborhoods, helping residents fill out census forms. The canvassers were paid, IIRC, $0.50 and $1.50 for each short and long form filled out respectively.
After the canvassing was done and the canvassers paid and long gone, thousands of duplicate forms were found. They all had to be weeded out by hand, adding to the expense.
Since it was an AP release and did not identify the party, it must have been a Democrat scam. If the young schmuck had been doing illegal Republican registrations, it would have been in the New York Times, Sunday Edition, above the fold.
Must be Democrat since the article never mentioned.
If it had been Republicans, you would have seen that mentioned at least 3 times in this article. Since it was ACORN (Dems), no mention of party.
I couldn't agree more. In fact, shouldn't this be a bigger story than it is? Unfortunately, few will happen to 'stumble' across it.
On the other hand, if it was 'pubbie fraud cBS evening news would be all over it.
This info is suspiciously absent. Of course if it was GOP fraud it would have been in the title of the article, on page 1, above the fold...
ACORN = Liberal DEMOCRAT (racist) extremists!
How convenient.
No repurcusions to ACORN.
Scam organizations like ACORN factor in percentages. Factor the risk for small % of their 'hired' people will get busted. This leaves a large % WON'T. It's an inexpensive way to forward the cause by fraudulently registering 'democrats' and ultimately 'votes' for their side.
Light sentencing for the perp and, no skin off their (ACORN) nose.
ACORN is mentioned - pure Dem...
Since this is an AP story and the party is not named we must assume it is democrats.
ACORN = black communist party
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