ACORN Watch: Project Vote, partisan antics, and illegality
Photoshop credit: Leo Alberti
Well, lookee here. The New York Times, of all places, reports on an internal assessment of ACORN’s shady relationships with its affiliates and its inextricable ties to Obama’s old employers at Project Vote. For months, ACORN watchers have laid out the incestuous ties between the two groups.
Now, ACORN’s own inside review lays out the questions of illegality. Oh, and there’s that million-dollar embezzlement issue. And the IRS breathing down the fraud-friendly group’s neck.
3…2…1…
RAAAAACIST!
(link)
An internal report by a lawyer for the community organizing group Acorn raises questions about whether the web of relationships among its 174 affiliates may have led to violations of federal laws.
The group, formally known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has been in the news over accusations that it is involved in voter registration fraud, charges it says are overblown and politically motivated.
Republicans have tried to make an issue of Senator Barack Obama’s ties to the group, which he represented in a lawsuit in 1995. The Obama campaign has denied any connection with Acorn’s voter registration drives.
The June 18 report, written by Elizabeth Kingsley, a Washington lawyer, spells out her concerns about potentially improper use of charitable dollars for political purposes; money transfers among the affiliates; and potential conflicts created by employees working for multiple affiliates, among other things.
It also offers a different account of the embezzlement of almost $1 million by the brother of Acorn’s founder, Wade Rathke, than the one the organization gave in July, when word of the theft became public.
“A full analysis of potential liability will require consultation with a knowledgeable white-collar criminal attorney,” Ms. Kingsley wrote of the embezzlement, which occurred in 2000 but was not disclosed until this summer.
No connection, eh, Barry O?
Disclosure of her report, which was distributed to Acorn and 10 affiliates, increases pressure on the organization at a particularly troublesome time. Besides the inquiries into its voter registration efforts, Acorn faces demands for back taxes by the Internal Revenue Service and various state tax authorities. At the same time, foundations that have backed Acorn are withholding support.
Ms. Kingsley’s concerns about the way Acorn affiliates work together could fuel the controversy over Acorn’s voter registration efforts, which are largely underwritten by an affiliated charity, Project Vote. Project Vote hires Acorn to do voter registration work on its behalf, and the two groups say they have registered 1.3 million voters this year.
As a federally tax-exempt charity, Project Vote is subject to prohibitions on partisan political activity. But Acorn, which is a nonprofit membership corporation under Louisiana law, though subject to federal taxation, is not bound by the same restrictions.
“Project Vote and Acorn have a written agreement that specifies that all work is nonpartisan,” Michael Slater, Project Vote’s new executive director, wrote in answer to e-mailed questions about the relationship.
But Ms. Kingsley found that the tight relationship between Project Vote and Acorn made it impossible to document that Project Vote’s money had been used in a strictly nonpartisan manner. Until the embezzlement scandal broke last summer, Project Vote’s board was made up entirely of Acorn staff members and Acorn members.
Ms. Kingsley’s report raised concerns not only about a lack of documentation to demonstrate that no charitable money was used for political activities but also about which organization controlled strategic decisions.
She wrote that the same people appeared to be deciding which regions to focus on for increased voter engagement for Acorn and Project Vote. Zach Pollett, for instance, was Project Vote’s executive director and Acorn’s political director, until July, when he relinquished the former title. Mr. Pollett continues to work as a consultant for Project Vote through another Acorn affiliate.
“As a result, we may not be able to prove that 501(c)3 resources are not being directed to specific regions based on impermissible partisan considerations,” Ms. Kingsley said, referring to the section of the tax code concerning rules for charities.
Project Vote, for example, had only one independent director since it received a federal tax exemption in 1994, and he was on the board for less than two years, its tax forms show. Since then, the board has consisted of Acorn staff members and two Acorn members who pay monthly dues.
Yes, this is the ACORN Obama knows.
Waiting for Team Obama to condemn the Times for publishing another right-wing, negative smear distraction…
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To quote joe the human gaff idiot….
if it looks, walks and quacks like a duck…. its a duck.
anyone who votes for Obama/Biden is a complete fool.
It’s Killin em and
I Love it!!!
McCain/Palin 08′
Concerning these two organizations: It seems the nut doesn’t fall to far from the tree.
To quote another Southern saying, “they’re as thick as ticks.”
Unfortunately aj, this is the norm for liberal democrats and those that have been dumbed down by the American public school sysem.
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. So that’s what a community organizer does – election fraud.
BO don’t need no stinking ACORN, he’s got a new team of thugs in place now…
Wouldn’t it be nice if they were shut down and all the registrations that they submitted would be declared inadmissible?
I know I’m dreaming but one can hope. Obama is a disaster being cast upon us.
I am SICKENED that our RIGHT TO VOTE has been “taken over” by partisan organizations.
There is, and has been for years now, collusion between the Democrats/Liberals and BIG UNDOCUMENTED MONEY and these “extremists groups” that are supposed to be “non-partisan” but are anything but.
I have seen ACORN myself, over a period of years, FIRSTHAND and I can state that they are ONLY interested in (a) helping themselves (b) skirting the “rules and regulations” and/or (c) defending themselves by having their “legal team” misdirect the discussion by shouting “RACISM/SELECTIVE PROSECUTION”.
Fannie and Freddie were/are a perfect example of what can happen when there are PARTISAN/money grubbing “conflict of interest parties” (i.e. Politicians sending money, getting money, supporting, etc.) involved.
In my opinion this is the equilivant of aRICO (i.e. organized crime) occuring over numerous states with the intent of FRAUD.
The “mentality” of “the ends justifies the means” has worked, thus far, with ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION and with the “527 groups” (i.e. SOROS) and now with ACORN.
American CITIZENS have got to stand up and say ENOUGH!
We have to DEMAND, from our representatives in Congress, to STOP all of these POINTLESS nit-picking “investigations” and get on with REAL investigations about ACORN and any/all parties whereby our rights are being abused/violated…including ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.
A wise man once said, after taking this in part from the Bible, that a “house divided cannot stand”…well we ARE divided here in America and it is NOT becuase of our “political parties”. It is between what is LEGAL versus what is not. Between what is best for American Citizens versus anyone who shares our geographical location. Between those in POWER, who crave it and abuse it, versus the hard working American Citizens. Between the Main Stream Media, who does NOTHING to bring to light what is really going on, and their “leakers”. Enough is enough.
http://www.jeffschrembs.com
It’s pretty crowded under that bus. Do ya think they’ll fit?
It says a lot to for ACORN, the Libs & Dems, and the ObamaNation that they will have to cheat for a chance to win. I hope they get caught with their hands in the cookie jar, as we watch our country spiral into anarchy because of the the idiots.
Can you say “diabolical”?
Thank you, Jesus, that fraud and corruption are being exposed, prosecuted, convicted, and prevented!
ACORN and the Communist Party USA
The truth about Odopey supporters.
I pity the fools that will vote for this tool.
A few of my students brought in some acorns from recess today and I have them sitting on my desk now. It helps remind me of the tragedy happening this election:)
Hey, NYT: Der.
The October Surprise?
Video Here
Remember “selected, not elected?”
Well, now the Dems can wear that hat and it will be true this time.
Anytime the Dems scream about something they allege the Republicans are doing, step back and take a close look at what the Dems are doing. It will be precisely what they are accusing the Repubs of doing.
It is called projection. And fraud. Felonious fraud.
lgm: your ball…. Tell us how much worse Bush is, won’t you?
It seems that some of the left wing media machine may be starting to realize how dangerous Obama really is. His running mate knows it, no matter how blue Biden is, he must be scared. Every other week, BHO supporters seem to yell help, we can’t stop supporting him but somebody do something to stop him.
Has anyone else noticed how absent the trolls are today on all the threads?
What’s up?
FamilyMan, Please don’t wake the dead until the 31st.
This NY Times story almost makes one believe in miracles.
Drews2Cents, I just don’t get it, if there is nothing to hide where is the birth certificate? As the saying goes, this not rocket science.
MM, hope you had wonderfully Happy Birthday yesterday. I see your back at it, last posting after 10:30 pm…get some rest lady. Thank you again for all you do on this site.
Jimmy Carter has long experience observing election fairness on foreign soils.
I am sure he can sniff out ACORN fraud votes on November 4 here at home.
Just tell him that ACORN is working to defeat Obama and is an apparatus set up by sleazy REPUBLICANS.
Rightisright, it kind of makes you wonder about the urgency in Obama returning to Hawaii. I don’t want to diss his grandmother by questioning her health but… he’s thrown her under the bus so why not?
They’re all over at sfgate.com, crying over Proposition 8. That’s the California Prop that bans same-sex marriage in California. The news is that the wind has shifted and the “Yes on 8″ is leading the “No on 8″ by 9 percentage points.
This is really huge for the liberals.
That is the problem, none of the people that are supporting “the one” have the moral fortitude to admit that they were wrong and. Even though they know that putting “the one” in office is wrong, they are going to vote for him. They are not going to speak out to all of the sheep that have fallen in line and are planning to vote for “that one” and tell them that everything they have been told is wrong and the act of voting for THIS IDIOT is going to fundamentaly change the way the USA functions and the way we live our lives.
They really are that small and petty. They would rather let the greatest nation in the world fail than admit that they themselves were wrong.
And if you look, it is not only the left wingers doing this. It is the supposed national right wing columnists like noonan.
Drews2Cents, I just don’t get it, it’s in the constitution, but no one is given the responsibility to question anyone’s birth when running for the presidency.
Few years back I had to get a copy of my original birth certificate…well, I paid the money and the state sent it. I was born in California ’45, surely Hawaii had birth certificates in what 1960?
It just doesn’t smell right, like most everything that has to do with the Zero.
Everyone has to send an original birth certificate in order to get a pass port. There has to be one some where.
I have discovered that people I know who support BHO can not see the forest for the trees. You can point out everthing and they just shrug it off. They will vote for him no matter what. I just don’t understand it! Sheep being led to slaughter…the bad part, we are stuck in there with them. BHO can do a lot of damage in four years.
The socialists don’t care.Cheating is ok with them, as long as they win.
On October 22nd, 2008 at 12:35 am, formerwm said:
There is a simple explanation. They are victims of that process. Follow that link as well as the subsequent link to the referenced post. Watch the full video. Then you will understand.
Thank God there is an antidote.
Is this really true…Palin misusing state money? I hope not
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/21/palin.travel.ap/index.html
On October 22nd, 2008 at 12:37 am, MarcoPolo said:
By any means necessary…
brad_sk, I’m with you, I hope not, myself. Be interesting to see how this turns out.
Buyer’s remorse? Nah, can’t be.
Where was the NYT when the media was supposedly “vetting” their precious “chosen one?” Where was all this attention months and months ago?
Does anybody believe that it’s just a little too little too late for this article? It’s two weeks ’til the election. Is anyone going to care? The media and popular culture, if not the people, have made their choice.
These supposedly “non-partisan” groups have been taking tax-payer dollars for years with nary a word in protest by the media or Congressional watchdogs. People were too hyped up ensuring their “rights” to a home and making sure that the dead, illegal, and felons could vote to care less.
Is the NYT suddenly striving for relevancy? If so- their late attempt at investigative reporting is an epic fail. Too little. Too late.
What’s not to understand? They are doing exactly what the leaders of the US public education system taught them to do. It’s no coincidence that Bill Ayers went from a terrorist trying to overthrow America violently to a professor of “education.” Different method, same ends. Sheep indeed — by diabolical design.
Given the indoctrination going on in public education (and universities, which are are even worse) and the biased media, it’s a wonder ANYONE in this country is conservative.
If I get bored this weekend, I may see about having some fun.
I’m thinking of putting a McCain/Palin sign up and then sitting back in the woods and waiting for someone to stop and grab it. It will be like fishing for liberals.
When they grab the sign, I will light them up with a 20 million candle watt spotlight and get some good video of their reactions/license plates.
If I actually do it, I’ll post the video.
To make it interesting, maybe we should we do an office pool to see how many Suburus with Obama stickers I can trap.
I was reading some other web sites about how the republicans are facing tight senate races especially in several red states, Mitch McConnell for examole in Kentucky. Many of McConnell’s supporters are angry he supported the big bail out. It shows how conservative voters hold their elected representatives responsible for their poor decisions more so that the liberal lemmings that vote for anyone with a ‘D’ after their name.
Unfortunately, the opponents to the republicans are worse than the incumbent republicans. We are so screwed if too many of these dems are elected in the Senate.
ITookTheRedPill thanks for providing the antidote. It was like a bedtime story (but much better) so now I can go to bed have have sweet dreams of another era. God Bless Regan may he RIP.
Posts not working?
OK, one more time. Take a look at this article that I got off the little green footballs link thing-a-mabob. (Sorry if you have seen it before but I thought it was pretty powerful.)
Barack Obama Revealed, A Dire Warning from an African American…
Whiskey tango foxtrot.
Beware the Talibama squads once “The One” is formally anointed. (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3GjPNzHmJw).
Biden has warned about straying from blind worship and the Dimocrats are already stitching up the muzzle for conservative talk radio.
The USA will be indistinguishable from Chavez’s Venezuela before we know what the heck happened.
Now, now. They claimed it was a ‘non-partisan’ effort and that is just what it was. The left would never lie, cheat, or steal. So what if there was a little embezzlement going on? It was only a million bucks. I am sure that the
bail-outcommunity outreach money ACORN has received in the last week or so, will more than refresh their coffers. Look at how much money we have wasted in Iraq by just being there, let alone by allowing Halliburton to get all those ‘no-bid’ contracts. We conservatives need not be so damned sensitive. Let’s all join our collective voices and sing “Hail to the Glorious Leader.”I am practicing ‘politi-speak’ for after the election. I’ll not be doing it personally, as I will always call ‘em like I see ‘em. I just wanted to see how the written word from our RINO leadership might look after Jan. 20, 2009.
The Dems are putting out a story that the ACORN problems are insignificant: that the right to vote is SO important that a group like ACORN simply cannot cull its cards of obvious frauds — that is someone else’s job. The end result, then, is that the group dumps a haystack on the desk of some poor state official who is trying to get together a decent voting list, and that person has to wade through the mess. And, should it actually turn out that one of those dodgy forms represents a real person who has difficulty votine, ACORN will have an “issue” of voter suppression after the election.
These people are playing a game called “F**k the System,” a game well known by people familiar with the likes of Bill Ayers and Abbie Hoffman. The notion that ACORN should make no effort whatsoever at quality control is something the Hungarians would do to thwart the Russians.
Kind of off topic, but Biden did it again. Yesterday talking about McCain he said “You all know the line…He doth protest too much”. Uh, hello? It’s from Hamlet and the line is “Me thinks the lady doth protest too much”. He can’t even get gender right.
Amen! But that won’t stop the Obamazombies from working the numbers, reporting false news, and voting for this dupe.
So let me help connect the dots…. ACORN’s founder Wade Rathke is a pal of Bill Ayers, having served with him during the 60′s in the radical SDS (Students for Democratic Society)group. SO a pal of Bill Ayers is a pal of Obama as well….
The NYTimes also reports Republican voter suppression efforts. I demand MM spend equal time hyperventilating on those!
Maybe it would be enough to produce evidence of voting fraud (not registration fraud).
Removing illegal fraudulent registrations is not “suppression” except in LGM fantacy land.
Already been noted, also it should be noted that acorn registered 1.3 million people, all of which are now suspect. Every single fraudulent registration is ILLEGAL (not that your party cares). In Ohio alone there are 200,000 fraudulent registrations YOUR party refused to purge. This will make any Obama victory there a fraud.
Obama, the fraudulent candidate.
LGM you have been schooled and are dismissed.
Not to mention the people from New York going to Ohio for their early voting, setting up temporary residence (13 in a two bedroom apartment), registering and voting and then going back to New York. No voter fraud? give me a break.
Obama keeps denying that he is connected to ACORN’s voter fraud. But is that even relevant? He is still benefitting directly from their activities.
A huh, I can give you 850,000 reasons why he is.
I got a huge dose of partisan media this a.m. when I woke up at 4:30 and flipped on the TV. It happened to be on NBC because I watch the local news on that channel before I go to bed. I normally can’t watch anything on that station. However, they were just starting a 1/2 hour national news broadcast, so I decided to see what they had to say. They spent most of the broadcast talking about Sarah Palin’s expensive wardrobe and who paid for it, then went into some campaign trips she took her kids on and their expenses were paid by her campaign. So interesting they think those issues are big enough to spend so much time on. But the issues of voter fraud, corruption in the Obama camp, etc. are not worthy of their amazing investigative skills. Oh, and they must think nothing is happening in Iraq or anywhere else in the world. Just Sarah Palin’s wardrobe. It is no wonder that I find it increasingly hard to even venture into their world, even for 15 minutes without getting sick to my stomach. Has the msm changed so much, or is it just me noticing it more?
Same day voting/absentee ballots in Ohio, but then, as a GOP plant, you knew that, didn’t you?
Another miracle is a CNN reporter who was interviewing Sarah Palin actually admitting to her that the media is biased toward Obama. Fox and Friends showed the video this a.m. Could things finally be loosening up a bit? Hopefully, not too late. Tons of people are voting early.
Stuff is stuff, LGM, no matter whose smells worse!
So about decrying the fact that with ACORN we have an organized effort to defraud U.S. elections, rather than play I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I?
Or would that be above your pay grade?
Har!!!.. except for that $800,000+ he gave ACORN for his GOTV the vote drive. Looks like ACORN is hard at work with Barry’s GOTV drive.
Supporters of Mr. Obama seem to be HNE/SNE/IAI (hearing no evil, seeing no evil, ignoring all incompetence).
They, like LGM, have their Democrat talking points to reiterate, except with LGM it’s to rouse us into sharpening our positions against these liberal socialists who use to be known as the Democrat Party. Sad state of affairs!
Is is just me or has Barack Hussein Obama committed more crimes than most people already in jail?
They should make him share a cell with OJ. Someone had to say it.
The MSM is lying to you.
Obama is NOT in the lead.
America is still a center-right nation.
Don’t let the Democratic Socialists steal the election.
LGM,
Poll watching != Voter suppression
Requiring ID != Voter suppression
Purging voter roles of dead and unverifiable voters != Voter suppression
We could go on for a while. And btw…
Illegally registering, renting a house you aren’t going to use as your primary residence and then voting IS voter fraud. Not to mention the numerous cases of homeless people SAYING they voted illegally at the request of ACORN affiliates.
I honestly don’t see how any election office can be forced to accept a registration form from any non-government organization. ACORN couldn’t legally make the DMV accept your request for a drivers license based on a ‘form’ you filled out. You can’t get a Social Security card through ACORN either.
You should have to go to register to vote at a government office every year to update your information to vote. That way the rolls could be purged every year to eliminate so much fraud. The exceptions could be handled by having certified letters/forms designating your info. That way the Notaries ass would be on the line if he certified information he didn’t validate.