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Nevada charges ACORN

Illegal quota system, officials say, spurred 'garbage' registrations

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; Chris Edwards, the group's former Las Vegas field director; and Amy Busefink, who was regional director for voter registration.


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  • In all, there are 26 charges of compensation for registration of voters and 13 charges of being a "principal" in the alleged crimes. An initial hearing has been set for 7:30 a.m. June 3 in Las Vegas Justice Court.

    "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," state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said.

    ACORN's canvassers, she said, had to gather at least 20 voter registrations a day to keep their jobs. There also was 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, she said.

    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, authorities alleged.

    "These practices are clearly a violation of Nevada law," Masto said. "By structuring employment and compensation around a quota system, ACORN facilitated voter registration fraud in this state."

    The organization is being targeted, she added, because it shouldn't "hide behind or place blame on its employees" when the group's policies required "illegal acts in performing the job."

    Scott Levenson, an ACORN spokesman, said that the group cooperated in the investigation and that charging the organization is "frightfully absurd."

    "We're a bit appalled at the political grandstanding on the part of the attorney general's office," he said. "This individual case is truly a situation where, the organization that was most harmed is the organization that is being charged."

    Both he and state officials said that the bonus system was instituted by Edwards, who did not respond to a request for comment Monday. That system was "in violation of ACORN's national policies," Levenson said.

    "Incentives, bonus systems, are against any training that we do with our employees," he said. Canvassers do not 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."

    In an affidavit supporting the charges, an investigator said that both ACORN employees and training materials set a hard target of 20 registration forms per day for employees to keep their jobs.

    "It was the policy of ACORN to terminate from employment canvassers who failed to obtain 20 (voter registration forms) per day," said Colin Haynes, an investigator with the secretary of state's office.

    "However," he added, "this was not uniformly enforced, and it was left to each individual political organizer to deal with any of their canvassers who failed to meet this quota."

    Lisa Rasmussen, a local attorney representing ACORN, called the allegations against the group "patently false."

    "Even the state concedes in its charging documents that there was no 'quota' system that was enforced by ACORN," she said in an e-mailed statement.

    "Furthermore, the suggestion that a business cannot implement standards of quality control, performance goals and individual job performance tools is contrary to the First Amendment."

    She also said Busefink would not be available for comment.

    The charges are Class E felonies, the penalty for which can be probation or one to four years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

    At Monday's announcement, state and local officials emphasized that the false voter registrations did not translate to people being able to vote fraudulently.

    "This is a case of voter registration fraud," Secretary of State Ross Miller said. "There is absolutely no evidence that there was any voter fraud in the last election."

    Larry Lomax, the Clark County registrar of voters, said his office reviewed the 91,002 voter registration forms turned in by ACORN and verified that information on the form matched information attached to the voter's driver's license number or Social Security number.

    If the information did not match, the registrations were tagged as requiring identification at the polling place.

    There were 28,097 forms that were duplicates or changes of name, party or address, leaving 62,905 new voters.

    Of those, 23,186 actually voted in the 2008 general election, according to a report prepared by Lomax's office.

    That means almost 40,000 of the new voters registered by ACORN did not vote, and of those, almost 19,000 had information on file that did not match what was turned in on the forms.

    "That's 48 percent of those forms that I believe are clearly fraudulent," Lomax said.

    "This is individuals ripping off their bosses because they have a quota to make."

    This voter registration work is not easy, Lomax said. Canvassers are working in the summer heat and reaching out to people in poorer neighborhoods, all the while making $8 or $9 an hour.

    "There's a huge temptation to take the easy way out," he said.

    ACORN, founded in 1970, is an international community activist group that works on a broad range of issues.

    Locally, the issues include foreclosure prevention, immigration reform and concerns in West Las Vegas, a predominantly minority area in central Las Vegas, about the closure of F Street near downtown.

    Criticisms of ACORN's voter registration drives are not new. In previous elections cycles, officials in several states have looked into whether the organization was turning in fake voter registrations, and conservative groups have long criticized the nominally nonpartisan organization as a front for liberal interest groups.

    Lomax said he raised concerns about ACORN's voter registration drive in 2006. "I've been trying to get someone to do something about this for a while," he said.

    Bonnie Greathouse, the head organizer at the Las Vegas office, said she was not worried about fallout from the charges.

    "We've had bad publicity before, and all it does is inform the community that we're here working for the community," she said. "People always come forward to our defense.

    "We're just community organizers, just like the president used to be."

    Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.

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    johnmayer wrote on May 21, 2009 02:46 AM: It is estimated that Obama's plan could benefit 8 to 9 million homeowners from the new modification procedures. So how do you know you qualify for the Mortgage Modification? Check the website http://obamamortgage2009.blogspot.com/
    to see if you qualify. I was also in trouble and I am glad I did check it before I talk to my mortgage company and it helped - John Mayer, California


    tom1 wrote on May 06, 2009 12:59 AM: GO...GO...GO. NEVADA ATTY GEN CATHERINE
    CORTEX MASTO .... YOU PUT AG FACIST CUOMO TO SHAME....GOD BLESS YOU....!!!

    Bonnie Greathouse...JUST ANOTHER LIVIN' OFF THE MAN......AND DOING WHAT THEY TELL HER TO DO AND SAY, LOCKED DOWN FOR LIFE WITH NEVER A CHANCE TO BE WHO GOD MEANT HER TO BE.

    VERY SAD...PRAY FOR BONNIE


    Give me a break wrote on May 05, 2009 09:57 PM: Fair and Balanced go out and talk to a few of the people ACORN registered to vote and you'll have a whole new definition of "stupid people." Most of those people didn't know who the h@!! was even running for president, until the ACORN dude/dudette encouraged them to vote for barack and anything with a (D) after their name on the ballot.

    "Now that's God's give to the Democrats."


    spartacusproject wrote on May 05, 2009 08:45 PM: It is heartwarming to see so many comments on one subject. However, our attorney general is grandstanding. She sees an easy target and garners a huge story line. How phony.

    She sits on the Prison Commission and is aware she has prisoner rotting to death for lack of medical care, and does nothing to make change. This is the attorney for all Nevadans? Her partner is this story, Ross Miller, is no better--he has the same information, yet, he too, says nothing to give our less fortunate inmates better care and more humane treatment.

    Why would we care? Maybe because those mistreated inmates are coming back to our neighborhoods--not theirs.

    We are sacrificing our children's education to keep many non-violent prisoners locked up. We employ far too many parasitic prison administrators and guards. Note: No tax money taken from the prisons, but teachers have taken a great hit. However, no tax cut
    from prison administrators--why is that?
    Are they really that important? More important than our children? I think not.

    Grandstanding in this case should not put her back into office next election. In my opinion, she is a phony, and with little talent. Keeping prisoners with long prison sentences, no medical care, or dental, is the wrong signal to send to our convicted. However, those pissed off prisoners are not going back to their neighborhoods, giving them little fear for reprisal. They are giving them to the people of Nevada to best do on their own. Sweet, huh?

    Don't let the next election fool you. Your vote counts. Let's get rid of the garbage we currently have conducting our business in this state.

    We have our Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and Russian gulags in our own back yard.


    Joe C wrote on May 05, 2009 08:11 PM: Despite those that claim ACORN operatives were unaware of employee’s making up of names to meet quotas; this was happening in almost every state ACORN operated in.

    Now either ACORN officials are completely inapt or corrupted.
    It is just more proof that this isn’t an organization that should be involved in any manner in our voting process.

    There is enough consistent info from many states that ACORN is not able to control continual criminal activity by those they employ or are so irresponsible and agenda driven that they lost sight of any integrity. The organization should be dismantled, certainly not receiving taxpayer’s money or anything from a stimulus package.


    endrun wrote on May 05, 2009 07:49 PM: This is a dog and pony show for appearences (this is no random comment)


    earlgrey wrote on May 05, 2009 07:45 PM: Did you guys even read the article? It says it was about canvassers amking up names to be done with the job faster! Not about Acorn operatives or any of this other ridiculous drivel you waste time posting. Acorn had a quota, people made up names to meet the quota. Simple.


    Joe C wrote on May 05, 2009 07:28 PM: To Free Nevada,
    There’s not a chance in world that Ronald Reagan and Obama have anything in common. Now that’s a funny one. Just because the both communicated, Reagan had some accomplishments and Obama has zero, except the continued spending and free trade of Bush.
    Time will tell the rest.

    While the Kurds in Northern Iraq and many Iraq people felt the U.S. left them it was a multi-national decision to leave Hussein in power. Not a installing of Hussein by the U.S.. What a joke.
    The thinking than was, you break it you fix it, wanting to avoid the many sects fighting for power in Iraq creating nothing but civil war, costing billions of dollars. Thus the situation we have now, a costly and no ending civil war.

    Obama and Nazi propagandist DHS Janet Goebbels have less than four years left and while it will take years to undue Bush’s mess.
    It will take even longer to fix what the Nazi’s Obama and Nazi DHS Janet Goebbels will create in the four years before they are tossed out with yesterday’s garbage.
    Lets not forget to put Reid and Pelosi in the garbage also.


    Free Nevada wrote on May 05, 2009 05:37 PM: Jack Handy, LOL. Most of the kids on here who voted for President Obama were no older than 8 (if they were even born) when he was on TV. Those kids voted Handy into office, not because they are into RetroTV, or even because they knew Al Frankin was an SNL cast member, but just because Frankin had a (D) next to his name like Obama.

    The only silver lining is that President Obama has quite a bit in common with Ronald Reagan. The kids don't realize Reagan was once a Democrat and a Hollywood superstar and a charismatic "communicator", nor that Reagan not only crossed the isle to the Party of Lincon (who Obama also modeled himself after), but also that after becoming a Republican, Reagan ran against a Republican incumbent to bring about real Change. The kids don't understand that Bush41 and Cheney were but employees of the Reagan Administration, nor how the Clintons had to distance themselves from the "real" Democratic party to even have a chance at getting elected after what Dems did in 70s andeventhen it was only because Perot split the Republican's ticket in what would have been the Reagan Administration's fourth term. They also don't know that many thousands of Kurds were killed because Bush41 unexpectedly lost and that Cheney and Bush41, both former CIA, felt responsible because they had installed and maintained Sadam Hussein, so Bush43 went in to undo America's mess. Republicans get a four year timeout now because of the heat poor Bush43 had to take fixing that mess on top of Clinton's other messes (Internet bubble and 9-11). Wish Obama had waited and crossed over to Republican party like Reagan, but if he can't control 1970s Democrats, he loses in 2012 anyway.


    Steve wrote on May 05, 2009 05:01 PM: "This kind of "information" is the propaganda that AM radio dupes keep forwarding to each other in those anonymous, paranoid, right-wing e-mails that typically end with "if you agree, forward, if not, delete."

    Fred,

    You need to write to Soros, Reid, Pelosi, Frank, Dodd, moveon.org, and all of the other liars and get a new line. This one is getting old.


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