STOP GIVING MONEY TO ACORN AND USE IT FOR health care

[Paul]

ACORN Employee Admits to Voter Fraud...FEC Does Not
Last Updated: Fri, 08/21/2009 - 2:58pm
On August 18, a former ACORN official in Las Vegas pleaded guilty to voter registration fraud. Nevada law prohibits paying canvassers for registering voters, but Christopher Edwards, former field director for ACORN, admitted to being involved in "a scheme to pay canvassers who were told they had to register at least 20 voters a day to keep their jobs and an additional $5 for getting 21 or more." Edwards has agreed to testify against ACORN in return for a lighter sentence. This case raises several issues. In 2008, ACORN was frequently accused of voter fraud, but no one investigated the accusations very thoroughly. Now that ACORN employees are confirming that the allegations were at least partially true, it will be very interesting to see whether the Federal Government steps in and investigates.
ACORN, formally known as the Association of Community Organizations for Change Now, is one of hundreds of connected affiliates involved in community activism and voter registration, among other activities. While numerous complaints have been brought against them, the cases have largely been ignored or dismissed without thorough investigations. Accusations of voter fraud are particularly prevelant against ACORN and affiliates. Unfortunately, if we are waiting for the Federal Election Commission to investigate, it could be a very long time.
In 2006, people were already bringing complaints against ACORN for violating campaign laws. In Florida, Manuel Iglesias accused ACORN of engaging in "A Coordinated Campaign With The Express Purpose of Defeating Repubican Candidates for Federal Office and Supporting Democrat Candidate for Federal Office." Legally, ACORN is not allowed to participate in partisan campaign activity, but a campaign plan written by an ACORN employee entitled "Floridians for All" is certainly not partisan. The plan's claimed initiative was to "defeat George W. Bush and other Republicans by increasing Democrat turnout in a close election...and...catalyze the construction of permanent progressive political infrastructure that will help redirect Florida politics in a more progressive, Democratic direction." The plan continues along this vein, stating that ACORN's aim is to "increase voter turnout of working class, mainly Democrat voters without increasing opposition turnout." With this evidence, one would think that the FEC had more than enough information to want to investigate. Instead, the FEC dismissed the case because when questioned, ACORN said that it was a draft and all the questionable material had been removed. Apparently, this statement was enough to settle the matter as far as the FEC was concerned.
In two other cases, ACORN was accused of voter fraud and in both instances, the FEC dismissed the accusations when ACORN proclaimed innocence. One would think that a proper investigation might consist of more than the accused party denying charges, but apparently not. Given FEC's investigative practices, it is not surprising that ACORN has not been officially charged with voter fraud yet. Regardless of whether the claims are true, they are obviously not being thoroughly investigated. Judicial Watch obtained documents from FEC's website concerning three past ACORN compliaints. We have posted them, with summaries of all the cases, on our Investigation of ACORN page.
STOP GIVING MONEY TO ACORN AND USE IT FOR health care