Free Republic

NEW ORLEANS – State investigators raided ACORN offices on Friday, taking away computer hard drives and documents as part of a probe into alleged embezzlement and tax fraud when the organization's national headquarters was based in New Orleans."This is an investigation of everything — ACORN, the national organization, the local organization and all of its affiliated entities, specifically as it relates to any potential violations of Louisiana law," Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell said.ACORN staff on the scene declined to comment, but an attorney for the group said in a statement the raid was prompted by allegations that former ACORN...

Some votes critical in determining the Seattle mayoral race may not get counted until next Tuesday. Vandals tried to get at a ballot drop box in Tukwila in the early morning hours after the election. "The metal cover plate that we seal the ballot drop box with at 8pm on Election night was ripped off," said Kim Van Ekstrom, with King County Elections. Ekstrom said the ballots themselves weren't tampered with because the box's design doesn't allow access unless you have the keys. The question is whether anything was slipped in that shouldn't have been. "They were in the process...

OK, here's what should be the nail in the coffin for conservative claims that ACORN is poised to steal the New Jersey governor's race through rampant voter fraud. Brian Kettenring, an ACORN spokesman, tells TPMmuckraker that the much-maligned group has conducted absolutely no political or voter registration activity in the state during the 2009 cycle. And Kettenring added that ACORN had done very little such work during the 2008 cycle. In a column published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, John Fund sounded the alarm about the threat from ACORN -- but a close look reveals that even here he...

Memory cards in seven voting machines were unintentionally left in Atlanta precincts Tuesday night, in a poll worker error that election officials say is not expected to affect the outcome of any race. Fulton County Board of Elections Director Barry Garner says he expects to gain access to the memory cards Wednesday morning and tally the remaining votes. Garner says poll workers in the seven precincts were in a hurry and did not ensure that all the cards were removed from the machines. He called the oversight unacceptable and said his office would put procedures in place to prevent such...

This is why last night Karl Rove said you need to be way ahead in New Jersey because of voter fraud. John Fund uncovers why the surge in absentee ballots should raise red flags...(video report from Foxnews)

I voted today at my required voting place at Northwest Elementary School at 300 Youville St. today. I live in Manchester, New Hampshire. I walked up and said my last name 'xxx', the lady looked it up, I pointed to my name and touched the voter roll. Then she asked me my address as if to confirm who I was. I already saw the address before she covered it up. And she didn't ask for my ID, which I know she isn't required to do. This is just open to fraud. I can go back tonight if I wanted, give...

Almost 20% of West Virginians eligible to vote are either dead or have moved. Five States with the Most Dead People Eligible to Vote: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming. FUN TIME IN ACORN TOWN: DEAD PEOPLE RULE! Are you lonely when you go to the polling place? Want some company? Perhaps, you'd like to take along a dead "friend" to vote with you. That's a scenario that's becoming more possible across the United States. A combination of old voter registration lists that still contain the names of dead voters and voters who have moved, new "Motor Voter" legislation,...

Fearing a potentially devastating Democratic loss, the highly controversial Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) group and its affiliated organizations are gearing up to tip the scales and re-elect embattled incumbent in the hard-fought New Jersey gubernatorial race, sources tell Newsmax. "Acorn is heavily involved in Gov. Jon Corzine's get-out-the-vote operation, but is maintaining a low profile at the insistence of the Corzine campaign," Matthew Vadum, senior editor of the conservative Capitol Research Center think tank, tells Newsmax. "If Corzine manages to win reelection, he doesn't want the victory tainted by his close association with Acorn." Wall Street...

If you suspect problems at the polls e-mail: Voterfraud@Foxnews.com ------- It is "very easy" to steal an election using absentee ballots, claims Jan Tyler, a former Denver Elections Commissioner who now runs the website National Election Reform Examiner. She said some people shoveling her driveway, for example, told her they knew that "six or seven absentee ballots were sent to dead people," and she fears the numbers across the country could be much larger than experts believe and that prosecutors do not take infractions seriously enough. Fox News has found ongoing allegations of absentee ballot fraud in at least a...

The race for governor in New Jersey is so close in final polls that it may well end up in a recount -- the 1981 election did and was decided by less than 1,800 votes. If there is a recount, you can bet disputes about absentee ballots will loom large. Moreover, if serious allegations of fraud emerge, you can also expect less-than-vigorous investigation by the Obama Justice Department -- which showed just how seriously it takes such allegations when it walked away from an open-and-shut voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia earlier this year. Plenty...

Looking to bump up their party school ranking, College Dems at Ohio University (Athens) are giving away beer money to voters if they bring a friend. In an email Vice President of College Dems, Kellie Galan, reminded fellow Dems that a friend at the polls is worth $5. See email below. http://www.electionjournal.org/2009/11/02/oh-vote-fraud-alert-bring-a-friend-to-vote-and-college-dems-will-pay-you-5-dollars/ The Ohio Revised Code, would call this more than a no-no. (3) Advance, pay, or cause to be paid or procure or offer to procure money or other valuable thing to or for the use of another, with the intent that it or part thereof shall be used...

The race for governor in New Jersey is so close in final polls that it may well end up in a recount -- the 1981 election did and was decided by less than 1,800 votes. If there is a recount, you can bet disputes about absentee ballots will loom large. Moreover, if serious allegations of fraud emerge, you can also expect less-than-vigorous investigation by the Obama Justice Department -- which showed just how seriously it takes such allegations when it walked away from an open-and-shut voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia earlier this year.

Big Government’s open about the fact that this is an issue: Will Corzine Allies Steal the Election in New Jersey? ACORN, Dirty Tricks and Absentee Ballot Fraud New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is locked in the political fight of his life. With just hours left before voting, polls show a neck-and-neck race between Corzine and GOP candidate Chris Christie, with Independent candidate Chris Daggett pulling significant support. Obama and VP Biden are making last ditch pitches for the embattled governor. But evidence is building that Corzine’s campaign may see its only salvation is in rigging the election. What can you...

Regardless of how lively an election season might be, a new study shows that more 3.3 million voters on current registration rolls across the country are dead. Another 12.9 million remain on voter registration lists in an area where they no longer live. The analysis was conducted by the Aristotle International Inc., a technology company specializing in political campaigns, developing software and databases for politicians. In total that means about 8.9 percent of all registered voters fall under the category of “deadwood” voters on the rolls, the term for voters who should no longer be eligible to vote in a...

In a conference call with reporters and bloggers, Doug Hoffman campaign spokesman Rob Ryan addressed his concern about the possibility of ACORN interfering in New York's 23rd district.

KSTP investigated absentee ballot inconsistencies and reported their findings last night, and you can watch the video here. Many cities put up roadblocks to their investigation request -- and Bloomington threatened felony charges against KSTP if they reported on their findings. The most damning part is Sec. of State Mark Ritchie's denial of problems and response when asked to look at ballot envelopes and comment. "Ritchie first told us he could not read our examples, then said he wouldn't look at photocopies of absentee ballot envelopes." A 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS investigation has found that mistakes made with absentee ballots in...

Thursday, October 29, 2009 Democrats Ask New Jersey Secretary of State to Ignore Mismatched Signatures on Absentee-Ballot Requests This year, New Jersey’s registered voters can request a mail-in ballot for any reason. (Before 2005, voters needed to provide a reason for why they needed an absentee ballot.) The state received about 150,000 absentee-ballot applications this year. On about 2,300 of those applications so far, the signature on the request form does not match the signature on the voter’s registration forms with the state. In a development that is depressingly predictable, the New Jersey Democratic party is asking the state to...

The Democrats have beaten the Republicans to court in NY-23, obtaining an order to show cause that requires the impounding of voting machines for what is expected to be another tight congressional special election. "Most of the time, you don't bring this until the day after the election, and then only if you think the race will be close," said attorney Frank Hoare, whom I reached on his cell phone as he was driving back to Albany after filing the order in Elizabethtown. "The Republicans usually play games and start the action the day of the election; in an effort...

Despite court prodding and changes in state election laws, 16 Virginia localities have failed to meet a deadline to allow absentee ballots of military personnel serving overseas to be counted on time. Nancy Rodriques, secretary of the State Board of Elections, said she did not know how many ballots will not be counted. The local election districts include the cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights and Williamsburg as well as Caroline County. "Words cannot express my disappointment in our commonwealth," said Rusty McGuire of Hanover County, chairman of the Iraqi Freedom Veterans Plate Project and deputy commonwealth's attorney in Louisa County....

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. has agreed not to charge ACORN with violating a state law regarding quotas for registering voters, under an agreement reached in a federal lawsuit today. The agreement between attorneys for ACORN and Zappala's office drops the district attorney from the lawsuit that challenges a state law barring use of quotas to pay voter registration canvassers. Under the three-page agreement filed today, Zappala agreed not to charge ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, with violations of the state law it is challenging. The agreement does not immediately affect pending...

A strange anomaly occurs whenever the phrase “voter registration fraud” is searched. Who’s responsible for that? Perhaps the players? Search the Internet and you will find dozens of stories on the Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now or ACORN on a never ending stream of Google results. However, Project Vote (Voting for America) is often only listed as an affiliate. Articles posted by the mainstream media tend to downplay Project Vote’s role or is it something else?

This past March, Heather Heidelbaugh, a Pennsylvania Attorney, testified before Congressman Jerrold Nadler's Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties subcommittee about the fraud perpetuated by ACORN. Her testimony alleged violations of the election code, fraud and misrepresentation, and violations of equal protection and due process. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) was shocked at the testimony and called for a probe of the Democrat's favorite tax fraud group but Nadler's response was to stonewall. When the Congress voted to cut off funds to ACORN not only did Congressman Nadler vote against the resolution, but make speeches against cutting off the funds saying...

The last thing Mary Stehman wants is confusion at the polls on Election Day. That's why the chief clerk of the Lancaster County Election Board is spreading word in advance of the Nov. 3 elections about a twist in this year's ballots. Voters who opt to use the eScan machines at their polling places will receive two sheets of paper instead of one. "We want people to know that's not a mistake," Stehman said. "They are supposed to get two sheets." In a typical election, all the races put to the voters can be listed on a single sheet, using...

Not long ago, Pam Geller told the story of an ACORN office in Florida that had destroyed all the Republican voter registration forms it had gotten during a 2008 voter registration drive. Geller had a first-hand account of this crime from one Fathiyyah Muhammad, an Obama voter that is a registered Republican. She is also an African-American. "This is my first experience" with ACORN, Muhammad said. "This was before Obama got the nomination, long before then….I heard about this group that was paying $3.00 per person, to go out and to get people to sign up to vote. So I...

COMMENTARY GOP Was the Real Victim in Fla. Vote By JOHN R. LOTT Jr. and JAMES K. GLASSMAN John R. Lott Jr. and James K. Glassman are resident fellows at the American Enterprise Institute. Lott has taught statistics and empirical methods at the University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania. November 12 2001 Last week, detailed statistics were released on voting in Florida during the presidential election. The data for the first time include all of the state's precincts, with not just information on race but on party affiliation. At first glance, the numbers confirm the disturbing claims, repeated often ...

Although large majorities of House and Senate Democrats have voted to cut off funding for ACORN, this rebuke could be reversed as soon as November 1st. This is a point that has been overlooked in press coverage of the besieged left-leaning community action group. Moreover, even if ACORN (the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) does lose out on public funding it continues to receive support from foundations, corporations and individual donors, including George Soros. Despite the scope and magnitude of ongoing scandals that have ensnared ACORN officials, there remains a certain slyness to the news coverage in that...

Washington is "concerned"

RICHMOND, Va. – A federal judge has ruled that Virginia violated the voting rights of military service members and other Americans overseas when officials failed to mail more than 2,100 absentee ballots in time for last year's presidential election. U.S. District Judge Richard Williams also ordered Friday that the Virginia Board of Elections count and certify the absentee ballots. The ballots from military service members and others living outside the state were the focus of a lawsuit filed by Republican candidate John McCain's campaign, which alleged that they weren't mailed in time for overseas voters to return them before the...

Almost daily, news stories covering the current voter fraud investigation in Afghanistan are reported across the oceans. The barrage of stories ought to cause Americans to pause and remember the little unresolved issue in the United States. Whatever happened with the investigation into ACORN and the 2008 election? The organization did register a mere 1,315,037 voters by October for the 2008 presidential election. And, we must not forget about the Minnesota fiasco in which Minnesotans ended up with Senator Al Franken even though Norm Coleman led by 725 votes -- the morning after the election! The voter fraud investigation in...

MOBILE, Ala. – Reynolds Smith Jr. was a stalwart Democratic voter in Alabama. But the Alabama Democratic Party overlooked another fact when it appointed Smith to an interim party panel: He died in November at age 83. Party executive director Jim Spearman told the Press-Register on Tuesday that the mistake was caused by outdated records. He said the party received Smith's name from a 2006 list of candidates for the Mobile County committee and then used a voter list to verify him as an active voter. The panel was charged with replacing the local party's executive committee.

ACORN: A Communist Boogeyman by: Sarah Carlsruh, October 14, 2009 Bertha Lewis, CEO of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), spoke at a press conference at the National Press Building on October 6th. When asked if this was meant to be an “apology tour” for the recent YouTube video scandal and voter fraud allegations, Lewis replied that it is a “set-the-record-straight tour.” Recently, undercover journalists posing as a pimp and a prostitute received seemingly routine advice from ACORN counselors in several cities on how to evade taxes and establish housing for a brothel employing underage illegal immigrants....

"The Truth" Will be absent as Leading Journalists and Politicians Acknowledge FOX Bias in Reporting and Programming. With its attempted, often successful, agenda setting, the American right and its media echo chambers (led by Fox) have spent years targeting organizations that advocate on behalf of low-income and minority Americans. ACORN, as the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income people Americans, has been the target of choice. Tonight at 9:00 PM EST, Fox will be airing what it calls: "Fox News Reporting: The Truth about ACORN." Although Fox did ask that ACORN participate in tonight's entertainment piece, they refused...

CORN wants people to register to vote – as long as they’re Democrats. Republican registrations go into the trash. Here is a first-hand account of how it happens. In February 2008, Fathiyyah Muhammad of Jacksonville, Florida, heard that ACORN was paying people three dollars for each voter they could register. ACORN paid her three dollars for each voter she registered, but Fatiyyah Muhammad says that the group threw out her votes and fired her when she brought them registrations of Republican voters. Fathiyyah Muhammad voted for Obama. “I’m a Republican,� she says, “and this was the first time that I...

Remember when Bertha Lewis Said that ACORN has never committed Voter Fraud? I had forgotten about this report we published here this past June: Back in October 2008 the NY Post reported that Darnell Nash, a person who has a criminal record both as a man and as a woman, was being investigated for registering to vote numerous times and cast at least one bogus vote with a fake address,all with the help of ACORN. This was part of a larger investigation of ACORN which revealed that nearly 4,000 registration applications supplied by the "community organizing" group were suspect.(See video...

It was the 1960's, and after decades following the abolishment of slavery, African-Americans were still vying for simple, fundamental human rights, including the most basic form of involvement in society-voting.

ACORN wants people to register to vote – as long as they’re Democrats. Republican registrations go into the trash. Here is a first-hand account of how it happens. In February 2008, Fathiyyah Muhammad of Jacksonville, Florida, heard that ACORN was paying people three dollars for each voter they could register. ACORN paid her three dollars for each voter she registered, but Fatiyyah Muhammad says that the group threw out her votes and fired her when she brought them registrations of Republican voters. Fathiyyah Muhammad voted for Obama. “I’m a Republican,” she says, “and this was the first time that I...

I just saw a guy from Breitbart TV on FoxNews who said a woman worked for ACORN and she went out and registered minority Republicans but when she got back the ACORN folks said there was no such thing as a minority Republican and threw the registrations away and they never paid the woman for her work either.

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis yesterday blamed the Bush administration for the organization’s woes and accused Republicans of “ACORN McCarthyism.� Lewis blamed Karl Rove for instigating the legal troubles the “community organizers� are facing. At this point, reports of ACORN illegal conduct have sparked a string of criminal investigations nationwide on charges of fraudulent voter registration activities.  Most recently, two young journalists caught ACORN staffers in a sting operation exposing tax and sex trafficking advice.  Both houses of congress have passed measures to de-fund the organization, Lewis was hosted by the National Press Club at a “Newsmaker� event yesterday where she...

An Atlas exclusive with a former ACORN employee. In February of 2008, Fathiyyah Muhammad of Jacksonville, Florida, heard that ACORN was paying three dollars for each vote you could register. Fatiyyah claims she registered voters for Acorn there (at three dollars each), but that the group threw out her votes and fired her when she brought them GOP registrations. This is another nail in the coffin of the community organizers and their stealth agenda. Fathiyyah Muhammad is a Republican who voted for Obama. She is an entrepreneur and a great American. She makes custom caps ............ here's a little bit...

When you are a community organizer and under attack there is only one thing to do, bring out the race card. The latest count shows ACORN under investigation in 20 states, its employees were charged with more than 50 counts of “election-related fraud,” and that ACORN has spent more than $1 million on restitution to avoid criminal prosecutions (although the Louisiana AG says that number is closer to $5 million). And that doesn't even count the videotape/prostitution scam. The is more than enough evidence to show that ACORN is corrupt throughout its vast organization and in so many ways. But...

Breaking: Obama's White House ACORN Operative Fined $775,000 For Election Violations- Used Rapists & Burglars in Door-to-Door Registration Drives So where does a far left political operative land after his organization is fined $775,000 for election violations that included hiring rapists and burglars to register voters? Inside the Obama White House, of course. Obama's ACORN operative in the White House Patrick Gaspard is helping shape domestic policy-- From left: CECILIA MUÑOZ, director, intergovernmental affairs; MICHAEL STRAUTMANIS, public liaison; CHRISTOPHER LU, Cabinet secretary; HEATHER HIGGINBOTTOM, deputy director, Domestic Policy Council; PATRICK GASPARD, political director; PHIL SCHILIRO, director of legislative affairs; MELODY...

Evidence continues to accumulate from far and wide that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is lousy with corruption. The latest revelations come from Louisiana and Oklahoma. In the former, the local ACORN Housing Corp. office received contracts worth a combined $625,000 from the City of New Orleans for repairing existing low-income housing and developing new units in poor neighborhoods. The contracts were paid for with funds from federal Community Development Block Grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. An investigation by the Pelican Institute think tank of New Orleans, however, found that no work...

FOX NEWS BREAKING-MEGAN KELLY Exposing fraud in ACORN at high levels!!

The State of Virginia has argued in a federal court filing that they can legally send out absentee ballots to active duty soldiers the day before an election. Restated again, the Democratic Chairwoman of the Virginia State Board of Election (appointed by the Democratic National Committee Chair Tim Kaine, in his capacity as Virginia Governor) Jean Cunningham just claimed a legal basis for massively raising the barrier to voting for soldiers at war.

(Washington, D.C. - 10/2/09) In a very short statement, an un-named community organizing organization insists it has located ballot boxes in Copenhagen that held a large amount of votes for the City of Chicago and will formally protest the "flawed" voting that has taken place. "We detest the flawed voting that has taken place in Copenhagen and have proof not all votes were counted, and millions of people in Chicago have been disenfranshised by this obvious injustice. We plan on presenting this proof to the IOC, in conjuction with our SEIU brothers and sisters, and volunteer to personally oversee the...

About a year ago Red Dirt Report posted about some documents found in an abandoned ACORN office On the second floor of an old building in South Oklahoma City “Little Mexico” neighborhood, there is a room that until recently, housed a branch of ACORN... Left hurriedly and in a shambles, the small office, coated in a layer of plaster dust, still housed computers, documents, registration forms, I-9 employment info and boxes with an IRS return address and others with a return address for an ACORN office in New Orleans. The person working at this office, Adam Carter, had reportedly skipped...

A Republican state legislator released documents Tuesday which he says show the community-organizing group ACORN focused on helping Democrats in three legislative races in the November 2008 election and had developed a game plan to "take power” in Oklahoma within five years. "They say they’re not political, but one of the subdirectories was called political action plans,” Reynolds said. "It was their political plans to take over key targeted races in Oklahoma City to show how powerful they are.” One of the key legislative races mentioned in the documents was the Senate District 43 race involving Reynolds’ brother. State Sen....

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday to name a Justice Department official to oversee the production of what it called "our overdue information requests" for documents in the dismissal of a civil complaint against New Black Panther Party members accused of disrupting a polling place in the November elections. Commission Chairman Gerald A. Reynolds, in a letter, said the department has been "largely non-responsive" to requests for information since questions about the dismissal were first raised in June and had turned over "none of the documents" being sought. Mr. Reynolds said...

Did ACORN Elect Al Franken? Remember Franken won his seat by a little more than 300 votes and ACORN might have helped Franken to get his "landslide" margin in one of two ways,in the actual counting of the votes, or the new voters registered by ACORN... Minneapolis Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was the guy in charge of counting the votes. Richie a former Community Organizer, was elected two years ago with help from former self-described Nazi Collaborator George Soros and ACORN. In 2006, the Minnesota ACORN Political Action Committee endorsed Ritchie and donated to his campaign. According to the...

A conservative group and several gubernatorial candidates are asking Democratic Attorney General Lori Swanson to investigate ACORN over voter registrations and other activities in Minnesota. Minnesota Majority president Jeff Davis says a felon convicted of registering illegally in Ramsey County claimed an ACORN canvasser helped her. He was joined at a news conference on Wednesday by a handful of GOP candidates and one Democrat.