Posted on 07/27/2007 4:08:46 AM PDT by tcrlaf
SEATTLE (AP) -- Prosecutors filed felony charges against seven people in what one official described as the worst case of voter registration fraud in state history.
Meanwhile, in a settlement announced Thursday, the organization they worked for agreed to keep a better eye on its employees and pay $25,000 to defray costs of the investigation.
The seven workers submitted about 1,800 false registration cards last fall on behalf of Association of Community Organizations for Reform, which had hired them at $8 an hour to sign up people to vote, charging documents filed in Superior Court show.
Secretary of State Sam Reed said at a news conference it was Washington state's most serious instance of voter registration fraud.
But in interviews with Sheriff's Detective Chris Johnson, several defendants - while admitting they forged the forms - insisted they had been told ACORN would close their office in Tacoma if they did not improve their numbers, Johnson wrote in a probable cause statement.
One said another worker in the office told him "do what you have to do" to turn in more cards.
ACORN's oversight of the workers was virtually nonexistent, Satterberg said.
"Voter registration is a vital part of our work to increase civic participation," said John Jones, president of Washington ACORN. "We need to continue to do that work, and do all that we can to make sure that no one is trying to pull a fast one on us."
As part of the settlement, ACORN agreed to make improvements in its management, training and oversight of suspect voter registrations throughout the state.
The organization has run voter registration drives across the country, with allegations of fraudulent registrations surfacing in several states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri and Colorado in recent years.
The Washington state probe began after King County election workers in October spotted apparently forged voter-registration cards among about 1,800 that were turned in by ACORN. The cards arrived a day after they were due for the November election.
Investigators determined that no votes were cast from the fraudulent voter registrations.
Charging papers said that in many cases, the ACORN workers flipped through phone books or baby-name books, picking names from one page and addresses from another.
None of the defendants could immediately be reached for comment. Some had unlisted phone numbers or numbers that had been changed, while others did not return messages seeking comment.
Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the King County prosecutor's office, said he did not know whether any of the defendants had obtained attorneys. The defendants are:
- Tina Marie Johnson, 24, and Jayson Lee Woods, 19, who each face eight counts of providing false information on a voter registration.
- Clifton Eugene Mitchell, 44, the political organizer in the Tacoma ACORN office at the time of the alleged wrongdoing, and Ryan Olson, 28, who each face two counts of the same charge.
- Robert Greene, 56, and Kendra Thill, 18, who face one count apiece.
- Brianna Debwa, 35, the quality control specialist in the office, who faces one count of providing false information on a registration and one count of making false statements to a public official.
John McKay is a homosexual, so he had a personal interest in not finding vote fraud. On top of that, he is a very good friend of Gregoire.
If Rossi had become the governor, the homosexual agenda would not have had the success in the legislature it has had with Gregoire as governor.
Democrat voter fraud is endemic to our system of government. People will not tolerate continued abuse by political mandarins. Devolution is inevitable.
ACORN is an urban thing funded by the usual Democrats
You can add the Tides Foundation to that list. Tides has received considerable amounts of Kerry-controlled money via the Heinz Endowments, though it is claimed that the Kerry money went exclusively to projects inside Pennsylvania.
Of course, we all know that there is no voter fraud whatsoever in Pennsylvania.
I hope an “Amber Alert” was sounded after that scene.
A recap of the Washington gubernatorial election, 2004
Initial Result Gregoir (D) 1371,153
Rossi (R) 1371,414 winner
Machine Recount Gregoir (D) 1372,442
Rossi (R) 1372,484 still winner
Manual Recount Gregoir (D) 1373,361 winner
Rossi (R) 1373,232
Christine Gregoir certified the winner after “missing ballets” were found in time for the third recount. Now let’s assume for a moment that those missing ballets were legitimate and should have been added to the total, you can bet that without ACORNS shenanigans Dino Rossi would be our Governor regardless of those missing ballets.
Do a Google search of “ACORN Voter Fraud” and you get 179,000 hits. Here is just a few from the first google page.
ACORN Surfaces in Colorado Voter Fraud Case, October 14, 2004
ACORN Workers Indicted For Alleged Voter Fraud, Kansas City
ACORN Surfaces in Colorado Voter Fraud Case, October 14, 2004
ACORN, Stuart and other Miami employees targeted Florida felons by setting up voter registration booths outside of the Miami police department and Dade County jail. These activities are all motivated by ACORN’s practice of paying for each voter registration card collected—a third degree felony under Florida law.
Vote fraud and voter registration fraud were significant problems in at least ... Former ACORN worker said there was “a lot of fraud committed
“Investigators determined that no votes were cast from the fraudulent voter registrations. “
Oh, really?????
There were MANY instances of Vote Fraud in Indiana in 2008, with people (Democrats) arrested, yet it disappeared from the MEdia in a heartbeaAre you from the future?
Then lookie here:
Democratic Socialists of America ^
Have barf bags ready!
Those ballots weren’t valid. An employee “accidentally” dumped ballots, which had been held for verification of voter’s eligibility, into the ballots being counted. Additionally, about 65 dogs had been registered as voters, too. King County is a very crazy place.
Those ACORN people are nuts.
Of course, ACORN will continue on after this dustup leaves their workers holding the bag.Yeah, I think these are the disposable masses to be used by the puppet masters, knowing that ACORN will never be connected to them. Just a bunch of overzealous kids off the street that are fed up with GeorgeW and the Rebublican government, we should pity them and not look into who is funding and ordering them to commit this fraud.
Does this sound anything like the structure of organized crime?
“Those ballots weren’t valid”
I agree entirely. To make my point about the influience ACORN had on the “close election” with their dirty tricks I said lets just assume those missing ballots were valid, then - take away the ACORN phony votes and it would still be a clear Rossi win.
If I had a choice I would move as far away from King County as I could.
The article said NO Vote Fraud was done....HAHAHAHHAHAHA what a horrible joke! Our Governor's election was stolen TWICE from the Republican Dino Rossi and given to Gregoire.....pathetic.
Sorry, meant 2006...
It’s hard for me to type through the anger I have over that particular subject. Especially BEFORE COFFEE....
But, they are only prosecuting the felonious hirees who actually filled out the cards, not the people who hired them. The administrators said that they were totally unaware of the criminal records of the people they hired, and vowed to continue their work, registering voters.
The Seattle Times adds that the announcement of criminal charges came after the King County Canvassing Board revoked 1,762 allegedly fraudulent voter registrations submitted by ACORN employees.
According to prosecutors, six ACORN workers “had admitted filling out registration forms with names they found in phone books last October. The canvassers filled out the forms while sitting around a table at the downtown Seattle Public Library.”
You’ll love some of the names they used, via Sound Politics:
Tom Tancredo
Dennis Hastert
Alcee Hastings
John McKay
Leon Spinks
Frekkie Magoal
Fruto Boy Crispila
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