John Fund on voter fraud

John Fund, who has been bird-dogging ACORN, reports on more instances of fraud and provides an interview with Anita MonCrief, former ACORN worker.

Anita MonCrief, an ACORN whistle-blower who worked for both it and its Project Vote registration affiliate from 2005 until early this year, agrees. “It’s ludicrous to say that fake registrations can’t become fraudulent votes,” she told me. “I assure you that if you can get them on the rolls you can get them to vote, especially using absentee ballots.” MonCrief, a 29-year old University of Alabama graduate who wanted to become part of the civil rights movement, worked as a strategic consultant for ACORN as well as a development associate with Project Vote and sat in on meetings with the national staffs of both groups. She has given me documents that back up many of her statements, including one that indicates that the goal of ACORN’s New Mexico affiliate was that only 40 percent of its submitted registrations had to be valid.

Fund reports on one of the Ohio scandals

Franklin County prosecutor Ron O’Brien also cracked down in the case of 13 out-of-state registrants who came to Ohio to register voters in Columbus for the group Vote From Home. The group all lived out of the same rented 1,175-square-foot house in Ohio, registered to vote and then most of them either cast early voting ballots or submitted applications for absentee ballots before leaving the state. They have agreed to have all of their ballots canceled in exchange for the prosecutor’s decision not to file charges.
The Columbus Dispatch reported last month that “none of them seems to have ties to Ohio” — and apparently had no intention of staying there. One has even moved back to England, where he is a student. It is illegal in almost all states to vote somewhere that is not your permanent residence.
The owner of the house the fraudulent voters stayed at is also under investigation. He has voted in Ohio even though he has lived and worked in New York for the past four years.

Here is a factoid I did not know but provides an “aha” moment.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner admits that some 200,000 newly registered Ohio voters have been flagged by her office because their names, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and/or Social Security numbers don’t match other state or federal records. She is refusing to release the information on those registrants to county election boards that have requested them for the purpose of running further checks. Ms. Brunner was elected in 2006 with the support of ACORN, and indeed her campaign consultant that year was Karyn Gillette, who happened to be MonCrief’s immediate superior at ACORN’s Project Vote.
“I’d be very suspicious of what is going on in Ohio,” MonCrief told me.

Speaking of Ohio, here is one more example of someone out of state voting in Ohio, this time in Cincinnati.
(h/t Charles Martin on the Cinci voter)

Former staffer claims ACORN and Obama cooperated to raise donations

Via Michelle Malkin:
She said, he said…

HARRISBURG — A former staffer for an affiliate of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now testified today that the organization was provided a “donor list” from the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in late 2007 for fundraising efforts.
Anita Moncrief, a former Washington, D.C. staffer for Project Vote, which she described as a sister organization of ACORN, said her supervisor told her the list of campaign contributors came from the Obama campaign. Moncrief said she has a copy of a “development plan” that outlines how Obama contributors who had “maxed out” under federal contribution limits would be targeted to give to Project Vote, and that it was her job to identify such contributors.

The Obama campaign denies any coordination.

ACORN – Does the right hand know what the left is doing?

The New York Times woke up and published a story regarding ACORN that speaks to the kinds of problems that ACORN watchers have been discussing.
Project Vote and ACORN are so closely tied together that it seems difficult to say Project Vote hasn’t done partisan work. In addition, the Consumers Rights League has sworn affidavits from 4 former ACORN workers accusing ACORN Housing of funneling money to ACORN’s voter registration efforts.
The Times article is based on an internal report filed by Elizabeth Kingsley. In reviewing how ACORN actually functions, she found reasons for concern.

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.

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.

Barack Obama said on his website that he never organized for ACORN but he did for Project Vote. This report provides rationale for those who say Obama is splitting hairs.

ACORN whistleblowers come forward: Housing funds were spent on political organizing

The Consumers Rights League today released two affidavits from former ACORN employees. Both disclose that federal funds intended to support ACORN housing efforts went instead to fund ACORN’s partisan politcal activities.
From the group’s website:

Washington, Oct 15 – Today, the Consumers Rights League (CRL) released more damning evidence that the housing operations of ACORN are illegally used to support the organization’s political operations. According to documents detailing the accounts of former ACORN Housing Corporation employees, the group allegedly misused funds and may have hidden activities from federal authorities.

The affidavits are on the CRL website.
The affidavits accuse ACORN of unethical and illegal activities. The individuals are prepared to testify against ACORN in court.
Other former ACORN employees came forward in July, 2008.