ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — and President Obama’s pet activist group — has got to be the most blatantly corrupt nationally-recognized volunteer organization this nation has ever seen.
Why is this organization allowed to operate? I haven’t personally kept up with all the charges filed and allegations made against them, but it seems like every state in which ACORN operates (Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, Missouri, Washington — now, Nevada, just to name several) uncovers more and more evidence of voter registration fraud and shady practices. (See: The Complete Guide to ACORN Voter Fraud for a more complete documentation.)
My question is simple:
At what point do ACORN’s fraudulent and corrupt activities OUTWEIGH the good it supposedly does in signing new voters to the Democrat Party?
This from Las Vegas Review Journal, May 5, 2009 — ACORN voter registration drive nets charges:
A voter registration drive last year illegally required canvassers to meet quotas to keep their jobs and resulted in thousands of “garbage” registrations gumming up Clark County voter rolls, officials said Monday as they released a criminal complaint against the drive’s organizers. The complaint names the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, as well as Chris Edwards, the group’s former Las Vegas field director, and Amy Busefink, who was regional director for voter registration. In all, there are 26 charges of compensation for registration of voters and 13 charges of being a “principal” in the incident.
“In Nevada, it is unlawful for a person to provide compensation for registering voters that is based on the total number of voters a person registers,” said state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. ACORN’s canvassers, she said, had to gather at least 20 voter registrations a day to keep their jobs. There was also a bonus program, known as “blackjack” or “21 plus,” which rewarded employees with $5 extra per shift if they brought in 21 or more completed registrations.
Canvassers under pressure to keep their jobs turned in registrations with fake names and phony addresses — even, in one case, the starting lineup for the Dallas Cowboys…
Scott Levenson, an ACORN spokesman, said the group cooperated in the investigation and that charging the organization is “frightfully absurd.” … “Incentives, bonus systems, are against any training that we do with our employees,” he said. Canvassers also don’t have to meet a strict quota to keep their jobs, he said.
“You expect someone to work,” he said. “If someone walks in every day with 17, their job’s secure. If we have a goal for an employee of 20 registrations, and they keep coming in day after day with two, there’s going to be an issue.” [formatting and emphasis added]
So, instead of appreciating, say, 20 valid, legitimate, legally-obtained new voter registrations — because that’s all a volunteer could manage, two a day for 10 days — ACORN’s policy is to take issue with the volunteer? What does that mean, exactly? Apply pressure? Twist the screws? Use some leverage? And what would that pressure involve, exactly – meet your quotas or you’ll be fired? I thought these were volunteers. Meet your quotas or we’ll dock your pay? I thought there were no “incentives” or “bonus systems.” Meet your quotas or we’ll break your kneecaps?
What do you mean, “There’s going to be an issue,” Scott?
Clearly you’re counting on the ignorance of the American people and the slickness of your legion of lawyers to keep your under-the-table activities under wraps. Hmm — why does a volunteer organization even need a legion of lawyers and the resources of the ACLU for protection from prosecution?
Ah, question, questions. Most of them rhetorical, since it’s fairly transparent what’s going on here.
Here’s one more, to sum it up — what kind of peverted volunteer organization would take issue with volunteers that don’t reach goals? Simple — one that’s on a less-than-honorable mission, with a well-defined, secretive and subversive agenda to accomplish. The saddest part of all is that it’s an organization the President of the United States worked for — and thinks highly of.
ACORN, apparently, has an advocate in the White House.
– RB Stratford
Related Posts:
Yahoo! News: Nevada files voter fraud charges against ACORN
Gateway Pundit: ACORN Charged in Nevada– 19,000 Fake Registrations (Video)
Stop the ACLU: More ACORN Vote Fraud Attempts
Michelle Malkin: The ACORN Obama knows
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