ERIN NEFF: Voter fraud rears its head - Opinion

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Oct. 09, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ERIN NEFF: Voter fraud rears its head

ERIN NEFF
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ACORN's sophomoric attempts at voter registration fraud have been festering in Las Vegas for months. The noise finally got so loud that Secretary of State Ross Miller had no choice but to raid the nonprofit.

After all, a week ago, Miller held a news conference to explain that individuals who have moved -- or had their homes foreclosed -- can still vote at their old precincts.

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Miller has to put on the "top election official" face for good show with the stakes so high. So when canvassers submitted voter registration forms with the names of the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys, Miller had to make a goal-line stand to protect the integrity of the vast voter rolls here.

If he was going to warn those who might seek to use the foreclosure crisis to manipulate votes, he had little choice but to also get to the bottom of a voter registration mess in Southern Nevada.

Of course any group that sets up shop to register low-income voters is immediately going to come under scrutiny from Republican operatives.

But imagine if Miller, a Democrat, had opted not to conduct the raid. Two of his fellow constitutional officers (Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, John McCain's Nevada campaign chairman, and GOP Gov. Jim Gibbons) would have called him out for looking the other way -- to the benefit his own party.

Should Nevada come down to the wire -- and if the presidential election hinges on the Silver State's five electoral votes -- accusations of a partisan operative in the secretary of state's office would not be a good thing.

Two words: Katherine Harris.

ACORN's work could not be allowed to go unchecked and unpublicized for that reason.

A few months ago, Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax said he flagged so many "fraudulent" voter forms coming in to his office through ACORN field workers that he took action.

Lomax told me recently that he thought there were about 400 fake forms in question. His office not only took them out of circulation, but also watched as new ones occasionally trickled in.

Lomax said he was given assurances by Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now officials that anyone involved had been fired. Lomax also told me ACORN claimed to have fired about 200 people.

These numbers are important.

ACORN is an organization that lives and breathes on public assistance, largely through federal and local community grants. It must appear to have enough clients (register enough voters, etc.) to continue receiving financial support.

Thus the group's claims must be taken with a grain of salt.

The numbers just don't add up. ACORN officials say the group registered 90,000 voters in Clark County this year. But as the close of registration approaches, the county has added roughly 100,000 new voters.

If ACORN's claim were true, it would mean the McCain-Palin or Obama-Biden campaigns had registered very few people.

However, Lomax said that by the close of mail-in registration on Oct. 4, the Obama camp was bringing in roughly 2,000 to 3,000 forms at a time.

So authorities appear to have stopped major registration fraud. Thankfully, the ruse was so juvenile as to be spotted immediately.

Come on, they could have at least been creative and signed up the second string of the Detroit Lions instead of Terrell Owens.

The sad fact of the ACORN saga (new leadership there notwithstanding) is that these ham-handed attempts to thwart the system are crimes. And Miller had to do his little dog-and-pony raid.

Maybe they will identify 2,000 or 3,000 fraudulent forms. Maybe it'll be a few hundred. Either way, what's wrong is wrong.

And this sends a message to voters: If you really want to register to vote and participate in this election, do it yourself rather than with somebody outside a grocery store.

Each election cycle we hear stories of attempted manipulation of the process. In addition to ACORN, the most common complaint this year was about Republican operatives registering voters outside the Department of Motor Vehicles. They were registering only Republicans.

Both the state Democratic Party and the Obama campaign immediately distanced themselves from ACORN. And Republicans cried foul all the way up to Sen. John Ensign. Gibbons even got into the act.

Thankfully, we've passed the deadline for groups such as ACORN and the major campaigns to register voters. Now it is all up to the individual.

You can check your voter information on Miller's Web site: silverstate08.com.

And you've got until Oct. 14 to register for this election.

You've just got to do it yourself.

Contact Erin Neff at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. L. DeCarlo wrote on October 11, 2008 09:11 AM: The purpose and objective of funding social programs, ie ACORN, is to ensure that the funds reach the appropriate parties and the mission and goals comply with those of the donors. Unfortunately, ACORN has not met those objectives and now it is going to cost the taxpayers more money in manpower and investigations. Amazingly, the neediest are the least likely to reap any of the benefits. Wouldn't it have been spectacular, had that money been targeted to education, than wasted on people that are too lazy to register to vote. Politicans are too quick to rush funds into programs that abuse and take advantage of America's generous nature. Finally the people that should read this article are probably working or out on the street and struggling to survive while we squander our future. You should read where your precious dollars are going to waste, if you care. Mr Steve Diamond did an excellent job of connecting the dots that I've listed below http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/08/behind-annenberg-gate-inside-chicago.html http://sonatabio.com/CAC/index.html http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1262085 sad wrote on October 10, 2008 09:49 AM: sad: My my, it don't take much to rile you up does it? I suggest you read "Steve's" post from 2:58 pm in response to "karl" where STEVE said "I know it may be difficult for your miniscule brain to understand this but (g)eorge (b)ush is not in Congress. He does not set the policies; he just signs or refuses to sign whatever Congress sends him. Democrats control Congress. Wake up and smell the coffee." So, if you have a problem with people posting off topic, take it up with him AT LEAST ONCE before you so vilely attack me. Oh, and UNLESS McCain, can come up WITH JUST A SINGLE WAY THAT HE WOULD BE DIFFERENT FROM bush, then electing McCain CANNOT BE DIFFERENT THAT HAVING bush AS PRESIDENT AND I WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE THAT CLEAR. Have a nice day. Streakster1 wrote on October 10, 2008 08:53 AM: Good old Erin. One of the reasons I gave up the RJ subscription. Don't enjoy the left wing lying & taking up space that could be used for a good business section. sheepdog2709 wrote on October 09, 2008 11:20 PM: Erin you sound so angry when you write misleading stories. Relax and tell the truth once in awhile - it would be refreshing. ACORN & OBAMA: "I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career," Obama said in November 2007. In the early 1990s Obama was in charge of training sessions for ACORN activists. ACORN receives 40% of its funding from Congress but the receive more from: the Woods Fund, the Joyce Foundation, and from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge - Obama was a board member to each of these. See how the same story is written in the New York Post: http://www.nypost.com/seven/09292008/postopinion/editorials/the_meltdowns_acorn_131274.htm Daniel wrote on October 09, 2008 10:28 PM: Judy, Whats the matter, don't like fairness, This will stop you from signing all those fake Acorn registration. By the way Alaska is Beautiful, you should go there during the winter and walk the land when your on your woman Period. I know then if you make it back the bears will know your full of Sh?t and left you alone. What Repug DMV Types do with Non-Repug, Completed Registrations wrote on October 09, 2008 10:27 PM: SS quotes Neff: "In addition to ACORN, the most common complaint this year was about Republican operatives registering voters outside the Department of Motor Vehicles. They were registering only Republicans." SS sez: "Gotta love how hearsay is used to defend the criminal activity of ACORN. Erin -- if there was proof of this 'Republican operatives' issue, Miller would have prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." Is it illegal to be nasty to non-republicans who want to register with the nasty, Palin types standing outside DMV? No. Hence, no crime. Also, the pesky DMV Repugs, after being holes about providing the state-property registration forms to non-repugs, put ALL non-repug registrations into the shredder. Dice Moving: Hands Up, McCain! wrote on October 09, 2008 10:18 PM: Michael Kinsley relays a disturbing story about John McCain from Jeff Dearth, former publisher of the New Republic, when Dearth and McCain attended a magazine industry conference at a casino hotel in Puerto Rico in 2005: McCain's game is craps. So is Jeff Dearth's. Jeff was at the table when McCain showed up and happily made room for him. Apparently there is some kind of rule or tradition in craps that everyone's hands are supposed to be above the table when the dice are about to be thrown. McCain--"very likely distracted by one of the many people who approached him that evening," Jeff says charitably--apparently was violating this rule. A small middle-aged woman at the table, apparently a "regular," reached out and pulled McCain's arm away. I'll let Jeff take over the story: "McCain immediately turned to the woman and said between clenched teeth: 'DON'T TOUCH ME.' The woman started to explain...McCain interrupted her: 'DON'T TOUCH ME,' he repeated viciously. The woman again tried to explain. 'DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING TO?' McCain continued, his voice rising and his hands now raised in the 'bring it on' position. He was red-faced. By this time all the action at the table had stopped. I was completely shocked. McCain had totally lost it, and in the space of about ten seconds. 'Sir, you must be courteous to the other players at the table,' the pit boss said to McCain. "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? ASK ANYBODY AROUND HERE WHO I AM." The pit boss might not have known McCain. But the senator continued in full fury--"DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING TO? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"--and crisis was avoided only when Jeff offered to change places and stand between McCain and the woman who had touched his arm. Sad Summerlin wrote on October 09, 2008 08:55 PM: patrick - go spew your bile elsewhere... this article is about voter fraud and ACORN... not the Iraq war... Newsflash!!! George Bush is not running this year... patrick wrote on October 09, 2008 08:42 PM: Steve: You sound like you're reading a textbook or somthing. You don't REALLY believe what you said do you? I mean, its nice to see people believe in ideas my friend, but blind naivte is just not doing you any good. You know that bush wanted to invade Iraq LONG before 911 right? I mean, between Cheney Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz they had the guns loaded and orders issued before they took their oaths. Convincing the American public and the rest of the world was just part of the plan all along. Ever heard of the downing street memo? That was the memo from the British Chief of Security that laid out exactly what bush intended to do, long before the war started. When this top intelligence official, of our closest ally said that bush was wrapping the intelligence around the plan what did that tell you? You do realize that the promotional campaign launched by the president and his minions was intended to CONVINCE the American public SO THAT they would convince their congresspeople to vote for whatever BUSH WANTED. The lawmaking process is alot of things, but it is most certainly NOT simply one like you read about in high school. WAKE UP. Sad Summerlin wrote on October 09, 2008 05:05 PM: Neff can't resist: "In addition to ACORN, the most common complaint this year was about Republican operatives registering voters outside the Department of Motor Vehicles. They were registering only Republicans." Gotta love how hearsay is used to defend the criminal activity of ACORN. Erin -- if there was proof of this "Republican operatives" issue, Miller would have prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We would have proof and front page news on ALL news channels of Republican voter fraud... Instead... you continue to repeat rumor and hearsay as fact... STOP IT!!! Johnathan Abbinet --- SIR... I humbly appreciate everything you have said in your post. Well written and well stated and I fully agree (except for the kudos for Neff for reasons listed above)... This is NOT a Republican-Democrat issue... this is a WE THE PEOPLE ISSUE... and we are losing... we cannot allow organizations on any side to have this behavior and we must denounce in unity this kind of criminal activity. Read All Comments