Free Republic

Many are puzzled that Democrats persist in ramming unpopular and destructive legislation down our collective throats with no apparent concern for their plummeting poll numbers. A widespread belief is that the Democrats are committing political suicide and will be swept from one or both houses of Congress with unprecedented electoral losses next November. But since Democrat politicians rarely do things that will not ultimately benefit themselves, this column asked two weeks ago, "What do they know that we don't?" We may have found out. It's called universal voter registration. The Wall Street Journal's John Fund described the Democrat plan recently at a David Horowitz Freedom...

Many are puzzled that Democrats persist in ramming unpopular and destructive legislation down our collective throats while seemingly unconcerned by their plummeting poll numbers. A widespread belief is that the Democrats are committing political suicide and will be swept from one or both houses of Congress with unprecedented electoral losses next November. But since Democrat politicians rarely do things that will not ultimately benefit themselves, this column asked two weeks ago: "what do they know that we don't?" We may have found out. It's called universal voter registration. The Wall Street Journal's John Fund described the Democrat plan recently at...

Same Day Voter Registration Re-Introduced WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and U.S. Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) are reintroducing legislation to "make it easier for Americans" to register to vote by allowing same day registration at polling places for all federal elections. By allowing voters to register at polling places the same day as they vote, the Same Day Registration Act would help increase voter turnout and voters would not have to worry about sitting an election out because they missed a registration deadline. And by having voters register in person, there is less of a chance that...

A strange anomaly occurs whenever the phrase “voter registration fraud” is searched. Who’s responsible for that? Perhaps the players? Search the Internet and you will find dozens of stories on the Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now or ACORN on a never ending stream of Google results. However, Project Vote (Voting for America) is often only listed as an affiliate. Articles posted by the mainstream media tend to downplay Project Vote’s role or is it something else?

Not long ago, Pam Geller told the story of an ACORN office in Florida that had destroyed all the Republican voter registration forms it had gotten during a 2008 voter registration drive. Geller had a first-hand account of this crime from one Fathiyyah Muhammad, an Obama voter that is a registered Republican. She is also an African-American. "This is my first experience" with ACORN, Muhammad said. "This was before Obama got the nomination, long before then….I heard about this group that was paying $3.00 per person, to go out and to get people to sign up to vote. So I...

CORN wants people to register to vote – as long as they’re Democrats. Republican registrations go into the trash. Here is a first-hand account of how it happens. In February 2008, Fathiyyah Muhammad of Jacksonville, Florida, heard that ACORN was paying people three dollars for each voter they could register. ACORN paid her three dollars for each voter she registered, but Fatiyyah Muhammad says that the group threw out her votes and fired her when she brought them registrations of Republican voters. Fathiyyah Muhammad voted for Obama. “I’m a Republican,” she says, “and this was the first time that I...

SNIPPET: "For all his public activity, Bray has rarely, if ever, discussed his life story in detail. His own MAS biography offers vague descriptions of his work as "a long time civil and human rights advocate." A charismatic African-American convert to Islam, Bray spent this entire decade working for Islamist organizations. Prior to joining MAS, Bray was political director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Those jobs have helped him build a growing public profile and given him access to politicians and policy makers. And that may explain his reluctance to discuss his life before political activism. The Investigative...

Arrest warrants have been issued in Miami for 11 people suspected of falsifying information on hundreds of voter registration cards last year. The FBI and state authorities were making arrests Wednesday. The workers being sought were hired to register voters by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. Prosecutors say they were first notified by ACORN about problems with workers in June 2008. Republicans and conservative activists have accused ACORN of fraud in voter registration drives around the country. ACORN officials say the Florida case proves the organization is committed to an honest process. The case involved...

MIAMI - Eleven people hired by the community organization ACORN to register potential voters in Miami-Dade County before last year's presidential election are accused of falsifying hundreds of voter registration cards. The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office issued arrest warrants for each of the 11 suspects, all of whom worked for the local chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, commonly known as ACORN

While ACORN retreats across the nation, an upcoming voter registration fraud trial may reveal embarrassing information that hinders the ability of the embattled radical activist group to function. The testimony will come as soon as next month from former ACORN Las Vegas field director Christopher Edwards. Charged with election fraud by Nevada's Democratic attorney general, he cut a deal last week with prosecutors and has pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for registration of voters. ACORN allegedly enforced voter registration quotas with its employees and offered bonuses for extra registrations. Nevada law forbids...

A long-time federal prosecutor once told me that as long as elections put people into positions where they can make decisions about how much the government will spend, who will receive the money, and how the government will exercise its power, elections will be important enough to tempt some individuals to steal them. As the Supreme Court recognized when it upheld the constitutionality of Indiana's voter identification law in 2008, flagrant examples of voter fraud "have been documented throughout this Nation's history by respected historians and journalists." Those examples "demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud...

The national community organizing group ACORN today filed a federal lawsuit against the state attorney general and Allegheny County district attorney, claiming that a Pennsylvania statute that prohibits paying workers to collect a certain number of new voter registrations is unconstitutional. Filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the lawsuit claims that the state statute has been used by District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. to charge five former employees of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Those people have been charged with filling out fraudulent voter registration applications and face a number of criminal counts, including forgery....

Obama Justice Department Decision Will Allow Non-Citizens to Register to Vote in Georgia Decision Bars Georgia From Continuing Voter Verification Process Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel issued the following statement following the U.S. Department of Justice’s denial of preclearance of Georgia’s voter verification process Atlanta - “The decision by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to deny preclearance of Georgia’s already implemented citizenship verification process shows a shocking disregard for the integrity of our elections. With this decision, DOJ has now barred Georgia from continuing the citizenship verification program that DOJ lawyers helped to craft. DOJ’s decision also nullifies...

An internal 2004 manual authored by the community organizing group ACORN describes worker quotas for voter registration forms despite the organization's claims that it never employed quotas. [The manual] advises managers that workers who do not produce a set number of voter registrations per day should be fired. "If a person performs at less than standard have them come to another training, send them out with a team leader. If they still perform poorly then re-train once more, then fire," the 2004 management document states... "Anyone who performs at less than three voter registrations per hour SHOULD NOT BE...

[T]he House Judiciary Committee chairman's May 4 statement exonerating ACORN couldn't have come out at a worse time. "Based on my review of the information regarding the complaints against ACORN, I have concluded that a hearing on this matter appears unwarranted at this time," Conyers said in a statement aired that night on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight." Just hours earlier his fellow Democrats in Nevada, Secretary of State Ross Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto dropped a bombshell. ACORN and two former senior ACORN employees in the state, they announced, had been charged with a total of 39 felony...

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala today charged seven employees of ACORN (snip) with forgery and election law violations, saying they filed hundreds of fraudulent voter registrations during last year's general election. The charges are part of a continuing investigation of ACORN, (snip) fake voter registrations were filed by hourly employees apparently attempting to meet daily registration quotas in order to be paid. (snip) ACORN officials have denied those charges.

Members of Congress heard testimony against the activist group ACORN on Thursday, exposing the group's illegal activity and mafia-style tactics. Pittsburgh lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh appeared before the a House Judiciary subcommittee alleging that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has violated campaign finance and tax laws in addition to their protest-for-hire and coerced donations. The source of the accusations was from the sworn testimony of ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief, who was a clerk for ACORN's sister organization called Project Vote. MonCrief, a Democrat and Obama supporter, testified last year that Barack Obama's campaign gave Project Vote a...

More than half the voter registrations turned in by ACORN canvassers during the last election were not valid, according to testimony to be presented before a House Judiciary subcommittee. The testimony is from Anita MonCrief, a former employee of an affiliate of the Association of Community Organizations. MonCrief, who was fired for improperly charging personal expenses to the ACORN affiliate, originally testified under oath as part of a request by the Republican State Committee in Pennsylvania for an injunction against ACORN. The request was denied. The FBI has been investigating the liberal community organizing group for possible voter registration fraud....

Barack Obama ran on the promise of bringing America together, but Democrats in Congress seem more eager to use their majorities to expand and cement their power across the entire federal government. If Republicans are to avoid becoming a permanent minority, they need to stop five hyperpartisan bills likely to come to the floor over the first half of 2009. 1) Card Check: Labeled the Employee Free Choice Act, this bill would fundamentally undermine the rights of workers and business owners. The law now guarantees workers' right to a secret ballot in deciding whether to unionize. This bill (which Obama...

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. -- Thousands of dead Floridians are registered to vote and some in Central Florida had ballots cast in their names long after their deaths. "That is scary," said Jim Branch. Branch's mother Marjorie died in 2004 but someone voted for her in 2006. Branch had tried to get his mother removed from the voter rolls. "It was much easier for me calling Social Security and taking her off not getting any more checks here, than it was that (voter registration)," he sid. County records show James Santiago voted in the 2006 general election. He too, was dead....