(NV) 5/09 - STATE: CRIMINAL CHARGES F...

Author Message   Bev Harris Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 10495 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box?  Votes: 5 (A keeper?) Posted on Tuesday, May 5, 2009 - 1:52 pm:        To be clear, the criminal charges outlined against ACORN below are not about ineligible voters casting ballots, which would be election-tampering. This is about illegal and reckless compensation schemes, basically, pay-per-registration and a bonus program called "Blackjack" or "21+" that added bonus money for exceeding quota. The distinction is an important one. Turning an illegal compensation scheme into election fraud requires two more steps: Dumping extra or unauthorized registrations into the system, and voting those extra registrations. Like many writers of a progressive political mindset I had assumed, inaccurately, that: (1) ACORN's pay-per-reg compensation scheme, while reckless, would not produce ineligible voters, just dead weight registrations that clog the system; (2) I believed the story that ACORN itself was flagging the bad registrations, and that ACORN was in fact being victimized by its own employees; (3) I believed that even if a bunch of bad registrations made it into the system, they wouldn't vote. I've been rethinking some of these assumptions. Assumption 1) was incorrect. A lot of ineligible registrations have made it through quality control processes. In Nevada they have traced many of these to ACORN through numbered registration forms; I'd like to get a quantity on that. Assumption 2), that ACORN itself was defrauded, becomes moot when its own managers implement reckless and illegal pay-per-reg schemes. This leaves Assumption 3) - Do the invalid registrants vote, and could this happen in sufficient numbers to sway electon results? I have come to realize that in states with heavy mail-in voting, all it takes for large-scale election fraud when you have a stuffed voter list is one insider dumping extra ballots into the system. I am particularly concerned in view of the fact that the absentee authentication system used in many locations was designed by convicted embezzler Jeffrey Dean, and that it reportedly has a signature export function which enables transfer of signature batches FROM the envelope TO the voter registration card sig batch. Once Internet registration kicks in, as it has in Washington and may in Oregon, ACORN won't need to dump oops-excuse extra weight into the system. It can all be done internally. And in Coshocton County Ohio, we see an example of the apparent dumping of votes into the system by an insider: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/8/80354.html We need to take a broader view to get a handle on the real risks, which I think are significant. OFICE OF THE NEVADA ATTORNEY GENERAL - May 4, 2009 http://ag.state.nv.us/newsroom/press/2009/ACORN%20press%20release.pdf NEVADA ATTORNEY GENERAL AND SECRETARY OF STATE CHARGE ACORN WITH VOTER REGISTRATION VIOLATIONS Las Vegas, NV: Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Secretary of State Ross Miller today announced the filing of criminal charges against the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now Inc. (ACORN) and two of its employees for compensating their employees to register voters based upon a corporate mandated quote system. The complaint includes 26 counts of Compensation for Registration of Voters, a Category E felony in violation of NRS 293.805 and 13 counts of Principle to the Crime of Compensation for Registration of Voters, also a Category E felony, in violation of NRS 293.805 and NRS 195.020. “By structuring employment and compensation around a quota system, ACORN facilitated voter registration fraud in this state,” said Attorney General Masto. “Nevada will not tolerate violations of the law by individuals nor will it allow corporations to hide behind or place blame on their employees when its training manuals clearly detail, condone and, indeed, require, illegal acts in performing the job for the corporation.” “It’s important to keep in mind that this was a case of registration fraud, not voter fraud,” said Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller. “The investigation and subsequent charges that have now been filed demonstrate the effectiveness of the safeguards in our system designed to prevent voter fraud. I’ve been clear from the outset of my administration that we would be aggressive in our pursuit and prosecution of any fraudulent activity that might threaten the integrity of our electoral process. This investigation is the direct result of our aggressive response to those safeguards.” Throughout 2008, ACORN employed canvassers to register people to vote in Nevada. ACORN paid the canvassers a rate of between $8.00 and $9.00 per hour, but made continued employment, and therefore continued compensation, contingent upon the canvasser registering 20 voters per shift. Canvassers who failed to obtain 20 voter registration forms per shift were terminated. This policy was clearly outlined in the training materials the organization used to train new employees and confirmed by former employees of ACORN. From July 27, 2008 through October 2, 2008, ACORN also provided additional compensation, in the form of a bonus program called “Blackjack” or “21+” that was based upon the total number of voters a person registered. Specifically, a canvasser who brought in 21 or more completed voter registration forms per shift would be paid a bonus of $5.00. The Blackjack bonus program was created by employee Christopher Edwards, the Field Director for the Las Vegas office. ACORN time sheets indicate that corporate officers of ACORN were aware of the “Blackjack” bonus program and failed to take immediate action to terminate it. Amy Busefink was ACORN’s Deputy Regional Director who was aware of the “Blackjack” program and aided and abetted the scheme by approving Edwards’ bonus program. The investigation into the scheme stemmed from a complaint filed with the Secretary of State’s office by Clark County Registrar of Voters, Harvard “Larry” Lomax. Lomax’ office had received a significant number of Voter Registration Application (VRA) forms that appeared to be fraudulent. These forms were identified by serial numbers on the applications as those issued to ACORN for the purpose of registering new voters. Criminal charges were filed in Justice Court, Las Vegas Township, Clark County, Nevada This article also archived in the Nevada - State of section of this Web site   Bev Harris Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 10505 Registered: 12-2004 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Friday, May 8, 2009 - 12:57 pm:        Hello friends, This interesting thread generated so many responses that it's loading up emails on the subscribers to our News Headlines section. Therefore I'm going to lock discussion down here, transfer all the discussion posts to the permanent archived post in the Nevada section, and discussion is invited to resume there. Go here to discuss further: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/156/80362.html

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