Cuyahoga board probes ACORN voter registration drive

Cleveland .com ^ | August 27, 2008 | Joe Guillen

[Abathar]

CLEVELAND -- A national organization that conducts voter registration drives for low-income people has curtailed its push in Cuyahoga County after the Board of Elections accused its workers of submitting fraudulent registration cards.

The board is investigating the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Results of the inquiry could be turned over to the county prosecutor.

Board employees said ACORN workers often handed in the same name on a number of voter registration cards, but showing that person living at different addresses. Other times, cards had the same name listed, but a different date of birth. Still another sign of possible fraud showed a number of people living at an address that turned out to be a restaurant.

"I'm obviously very concerned," Board Chairman Jeff Hastings said. "This goes to the essence of our democracy."

ACORN had a part-time staff of 30 who worked five days a week to find unregistered people. The workers made $8 an hour and were required to sign up 20 voters in each five-hour shift.

The elections board's registration department said in a report that ACORN's quota contributed to the possible fraud.

ACORN stopped the registration efforts of the part-timers on Aug. 15. Three salaried employees continue the drive to sign up voters.

Kristopher Harsh, head organizer for the agency's Cleveland office, said it is unlikely a full-fledged movement will resume before the Nov. 4 election.

ACORN has submitted about 75,000 voter registration cards to the Cuyahoga board this year.

Board employees are unsure how many of the cards are fraudulent. But the voter registration department received so many suspicious cards that it began compiling a binder with evidence. The binder grew to be an inch-thick.

[Abathar]

""As Tom Blumer of BizzyBlog notes that ACORN has miraculously been able to find 75,000 new voters in a county that already has 200,000 more registered voters than adults, according to the Census Bureau.""

In a battleground state no less, I am SHOCKED!

[FlingWingFlyer]

Any and all voter registrations, across the nation, that were turned in by this bunch should be destroyed. Investigations should be done and all public money being given to these nuts should be stopped immediately.

[Abathar]

I agree, but who is going to do it - a Democrat controlled congress or house?

The Dem’s are getting their bread buttered for free here, don’t look to them to do anything except obstruct and interfere with any opposition to these criminals.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“
“We hit our goals early, registering 86,000 people in Cleveland proper,” Olsen said Wednesday in a written statement.

Elections board member Eben “Sandy” McNair said it was doubtful the agency deliberately defrauded voters.

“You had a badly run operation that was not paying sufficient attention,” he said.”

[FlingWingFlyer]

Exactly. It’s going to take some “watchdog” group but that would be way down the road, AFTER THE ELECTION. Then, the ‘RATS running these local voter registration offices can always wet their pant and whine, “Well, we didn’t know. They looked real to us and we didn’t have the staff to check them out because of Republican budget cuts.” That’s how it would all go down.

[Calpernia]

I would love to add this full article; but it is ‘AP’

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jNpDn7t8QzwKUyyYpmQ4-av_1-SAD927MR0O0
More homeless people expected to vote this fall

[untrained skeptic]

You can't just void the registrations, because some likely are valid.

This needs to be investigated thoroughly and the registrations verified. That is going to cost a fortune.

This has happened on such a huge scale that the leadership at ACORN had to know they were filing fraudulent registrations.

All assets of ACORN should be immediately frozen to prevent them from shifting them elsewhere, because the costs of figuring out what they have done is likely to far surpass their assets, and they should be held financially liable as well as criminally liable.

[Joe Boucher]

Seems to be the usual operating theme of Acorn.
Register tho dead and those who do not exist.
And our vaunted Justice Dept> where are they in all this? Rooting for the dems.

[RDasher]

I think ACORN should be brought up on RICO charges.

[traditional1]

This is not surprising in a State where Dick Tracy, Mary Poppins, etc. voted in 2004, and Thereeeza claims that they "won" Ohio and were cheated, knowing how the Dem's operate in the metro areas. This is the city (Cleveland) that continuously elects Kookcinich, and has its County Commisioners under Federal indictment right now (Democrats/Russo's) for racketeering and contract fraud.

Ohio may be a key state in the election, but with the control of the State under the Dem's/MoveOn/ACORN, it's an uphill battle for an honest vote count.

[snowrip]

Is there anyone that has set up a permanent thread or link that catalogs all the incidents of democrat voter fraud?

If there isn’t one already... who will start one with me?

[FlingWingFlyer]

My feelings exactly.

[Abathar]

Big push for homeless voters this year, they know it will be close.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

I sure hope the Justice Department is paying attention to this slightly obvious pattern or predicate of fraud which has been repeated across the country. “One man, one vote” only has meaning when my legitimate vote is not diluted to .999998 votes, in effect, by bogus voters. Time to lay some RICO on them.

[Abathar]

I am HTML illiterate or else I would. It would be a good reference to show people the comparison between the two parties though.