Posted on 07/27/2007 4:08:46 AM PDT by tcrlaf
SEATTLE (AP) -- Prosecutors filed felony charges against seven people in what one official described as the worst case of voter registration fraud in state history.
Meanwhile, in a settlement announced Thursday, the organization they worked for agreed to keep a better eye on its employees and pay $25,000 to defray costs of the investigation.
The seven workers submitted about 1,800 false registration cards last fall on behalf of Association of Community Organizations for Reform, which had hired them at $8 an hour to sign up people to vote, charging documents filed in Superior Court show.
Secretary of State Sam Reed said at a news conference it was Washington state's most serious instance of voter registration fraud.
But in interviews with Sheriff's Detective Chris Johnson, several defendants - while admitting they forged the forms - insisted they had been told ACORN would close their office in Tacoma if they did not improve their numbers, Johnson wrote in a probable cause statement.
One said another worker in the office told him "do what you have to do" to turn in more cards.
ACORN's oversight of the workers was virtually nonexistent, Satterberg said.
"Voter registration is a vital part of our work to increase civic participation," said John Jones, president of Washington ACORN. "We need to continue to do that work, and do all that we can to make sure that no one is trying to pull a fast one on us."
As part of the settlement, ACORN agreed to make improvements in its management, training and oversight of suspect voter registrations throughout the state.
The organization has run voter registration drives across the country, with allegations of fraudulent registrations surfacing in several states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri and Colorado in recent years.
The Washington state probe began after King County election workers in October spotted apparently forged voter-registration cards among about 1,800 that were turned in by ACORN. The cards arrived a day after they were due for the November election.
Investigators determined that no votes were cast from the fraudulent voter registrations.
Charging papers said that in many cases, the ACORN workers flipped through phone books or baby-name books, picking names from one page and addresses from another.
None of the defendants could immediately be reached for comment. Some had unlisted phone numbers or numbers that had been changed, while others did not return messages seeking comment.
Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the King County prosecutor's office, said he did not know whether any of the defendants had obtained attorneys. The defendants are:
- Tina Marie Johnson, 24, and Jayson Lee Woods, 19, who each face eight counts of providing false information on a voter registration.
- Clifton Eugene Mitchell, 44, the political organizer in the Tacoma ACORN office at the time of the alleged wrongdoing, and Ryan Olson, 28, who each face two counts of the same charge.
- Robert Greene, 56, and Kendra Thill, 18, who face one count apiece.
- Brianna Debwa, 35, the quality control specialist in the office, who faces one count of providing false information on a registration and one count of making false statements to a public official.
They can't. Not with another upcoming election for the Dems to steal.
I’m guessing these defendants are all registered Republicans? ;)
LOL - King county dimwits stole the last election (Gov) and the repubs have been trying to prove it for 3 years now...
To the rat the means justify the ends. They got fraud-wa in and that’s all that counts. The fine will be paid by some scumbag from hollywood and they will all “moveon”.
Remarkable that deliberate vote fraud is actually being prosecuted. (Then again, it IS after US Attorney Generals were fired for NOT investigating vote fraud ....)
I keep reading stuff about this ACORN - who is funding this organization?
Did I miss it? I looked multiple times, read and reread the article, but didn’t see any Party affiliation noted anywhere. What does that tell me?...DEMOCRAT. If it were Republicans, it would have been noted every other word of the article.
And in WA State no less. The Seattle area has become so lefty, and has dragged much of the rest of the state with it. They are hardly part of America anymore, it seems. I would have thought vote fraud perpetrated by the far left in WA would be accepted and even lauded, not prosecuted.
From DiscoverThe Network.Org
In recent years, ACORN has received funding from many foundations, including but not limited to the Annie E. Casey Foundation; the Minneapolis Foundation; the Open Society Institute; the Public Welfare Foundation; the Surdna Foundation; the Woods Fund of Chicago; the Scherman Foundation; and the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation.
Today ACORN claims 175,000 dues-paying member families, and more than 850 chapters in 70 U.S. cities in 38 states. (The organization is also active in Canada and Mexico). It owns two radio stations, a housing corporation, and a law office, and maintains affiliate relationships with a host of trade-union locals. ACORN also runs schools where children are trained in class consciousness; a network of “boot camps” for training street activists; and operations that extort contributions from banks and other businesses under threat of racial violence and trumped-up civil rights charges.
In 1998, ACORN founded the Working Families Party in New York, which endorses candidates for political office. It endorsed Hillary Clinton in her 2000 Senate race. Canvassers from ACORN and its sister groups launched a statewide voter-mobilization drive that proved influential in Clinton’s victory.
"ACORN is the largest radical organization in America. It operates in 100 cities. It is funded by George Soros and is a key component of his Shadow Party. It helped Hillary Clinton to win her Senate seat in New York. ACORN is conducting massive voter fraud in key battleground races including the Talent-McCaskill Senate race in Missouri where four of its workers have been indicted for fraudulently registering tens of thousands of voters in inner city areas. According to a CNN report, 40% of the voters they registered were fraudulent. Richard Poe and I have described ACORN's evolution as a radical organization and its place in the Shadow Party in our book of that name, which is available here."
The penalty for election tampering should be death.
Oh, they’ve proven it time and again. It’s just getting redress of grievances that’s the problem.
Yeah, a "fast one", like stealing the Governor's election in '04. What was it, King Co. "found" so-called "lost" ballots, what, eight or none separate times, just enough for Fraudoire to pull out a fraudulent "win". And then this scumbag has the nerve to talk about pulling a fast one. The gall of these 'Rats is really breathtaking.
What we have seen so far will PALE in comparison to what 2008 is going to bring.
There were MANY instances of Vote Fraud in Indiana in 2008, with people (Democrats) arrested, yet it disappeared from the MEdia in a heartbeat.
So where do you turn for justice when the judicial system itself is corrupt? How do you vote in a clean set of leaders when the corrupt leaders already in power control the election system? Where do you go for protection when the police are corrupt? I seem to recall our forefathers facing a similar dilemma in the late 1700s, which would have gone on if the patriots hadn't started shooting at people on a bridge in Concord. Sometimes I wonder if that is what it will take today to cure a system that is corrupt from top to bottom.
Acorn.orgImmigration policy is broken and must be fixed
ACORN demands that lawmakers pass comprehensive immigration reform measures that include the following:
- A path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States.
- Protection for all workers both native and foreign-born by upholding fair wages and working conditions for U.S. and immigrant workers and by ending exploitation and abuse of undocumented immigrant labor.
- Reunification of families through removal of restrictions and bureaucratic delays. Those who have waited in line should have their admission expedited, and those admitted on work visas should be able to keep their nuclear families in tact.
- Restoration of the rule of law and enhancement of security by providing a path to permanent status with effective enforcement.
“What we have seen so far will PALE in comparison to what 2008 is going to bring.”
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You are 100% correct. Everything (the aggrieved, the lawyers etc.) needed to steal the next election is in place and on call. This is the reason I shudder every time some FReeper opines that “Hillary will never win the general election.”
My thought also.
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