State attorney general files charges against ACORN, 2 employees

[ljm2002]

Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal

ACORN, an activist group that turned in 90,000 completed voter registration forms in Clark County for last year's election, violated state law by setting mandatory quotas for workers who canvassed neighborhoods looking for people to register to vote, according to the state attorney general's office.

Officials this morning released a complaint naming the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now Inc., as well as Christopher Howell Edwards, who was the group's Las Vegas field director, and deputy regional director Amy Busefink.

Canvassers were required to register at least 20 people a day, and could be fired if they didn't, officials said. ACORN also instituted a bonus program called "blackjack" or "21 plus" in which a worker could earn an extra $5 per shift by registering 21 or more people.

The problem with the quota system is it encouraged workers to turn in false registrations, said Secretary of State Ross Miller and Larry Lomax, Clark County's registrar of voters.


Read more: http://www.lvrj.com/news/breaking_news/44307912.html

[Journeyman]

1. Well, this will certainly be made into more than it warrants . . .

[underpants]

2. ACORN not only has set up a fail safe protection from this but they will surely fess up

IF this is the case

[Stevepol]

3. I heard that ACORN has never been convicted of anything.

I think I heard right. The organization itself has never been convicted of anything. Its workers, the folks it pays to register new voters (last year about 13,000 people I think) have often been accused of falsifying registrations and sometimes convicted of doing so. ACORN helps law enforcement to apprehend such folks, supplies the evidence against them, etc.

It's hard to understand why these local right wing mikados keep trying to convict ACORN of doing what is admirable in every way: signing people up to vote who otherwise might not sign up or vote. I can't see how any judge Repub or Dem cd convict the organization for this, even if they had some sort of tacit quota system (based on ACTUAL legal voters signed up) in place.

[Patsy Stone]

7. It's quite simple, really.

When people vote, Republicans lose. Half their strategery is vote suppression.

[izquierdista]

4. Just uncaging the 2004 results

I still think my vote got Diebolded. How could Harry Reid win re-election and Dimbulb get the Presidential vote?

[McCamy Taylor]

5. In America, if you are indicted, you are considered guilty. Political prosecutions have not

stopped, they have just switched from the DOJ to the states.

[L. Coyote]

12. Indeed. This is nothing more that a political assault on ACORN. RIDICULOUS!

Hiring people to register voters is not a form of encouraging law breaking! Suppressing ACORN from doing so IS!

[santamargarita]

6. More right-wing bullshit that will never stick

Shitbag Republican Politicians do this to score points with their asshole base

[progdonkey]

10. Miller and Cortez Masto are Democrats... n/t

[Richard Steele]

31. It's not meant to stick, it's just generating some HEADLINES useful to the Repub cultists.

They live in their own reality, where they only percieve
things that support what they already believe.

The Repub base will eat this up with a spoon.

[Blue Meany]

8. Gee, funny how they overlooked the Republican registration

company that paid its workers by the registration and discarded those who registered Democratic.

[struggle4progress]

26. ... Caught by the television crew, Voters Outreach of America abandoned its Nevada offices – without

paying the rent – and disappeared. The company soon turned up doing "voter registration" in Oregon. The company, it turned out, was .. financed by the Republican National Committee ...

Sunday, October 24, 2004
GOP election fraud is a certainty
James Clay Fuller
http://www.jamesclayfuller.com/2004/10/gop-election-fraud-is-certainty.html

[glinda]

9. Awful expensive Repub publicity stunt using public money. Blech!

[Doctor_J]

11. Are the REpukes going to announce a new political prosecution every day

from now until election day 2010?

[snowdays]

13. The AG of NV Catherine Cortez Masto belong to the Democratic Party. ..

http://www.lvrj.com/news/breaking_news/44307912.html


http://media.lvrj.com/images/150*111/ACORN-050409.jpg


Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto discusses voter registration charges against the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now Inc. (ACORN,) while Secretary of State Ross Miller, left, and Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax look on during a news conference at Sawyer Building today.


http://ag.state.nv.us/agbio/agbio.htm

Meet the Attorney General

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto took the oath as Nevada’s Attorney General in January 2007.

Prior to her service at the Attorney General’s Office, General Masto worked as Assistant County Manager for Clark County beginning in January of 2002. This involved working with the County’s agencies to improve children’s services including foster care, adoption services, child welfare services and juvenile justice programs. She assisted in the creation of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative to build a better legal system for juveniles that would ensure youth accountability and the use of appropriate community-based alternatives.

As Assistant County Manager, General Masto also participated on the Southern Nevada Domestic Violence Court Task Force to explore the creation of a unified domestic violence court. In addition to her role on the task force, she worked with various community partners to seek federal funding to create a Family Justice Center to prove services and support to domestic violence victims.

General Masto worked on the development and implementation of the Criminal Justice Advisory Counsel. The Advisory Counsel's mission is to produce an efficient working relationship, promote the use of best practices and improve communication among the departments within the criminal justice system.

Prior to working at Clark County, General Masto served two years as a federal criminal prosecutor for the United States Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C. During her tenure as an Assistant United States Attorney, she prosecuted criminals for felony possession and distribution of drugs.
In September 1995, General Masto was appointed to work in Governor Bob Miller's administration. During her initial years in Miller's administration she ran his southern Nevada office, provided supporting legal counsel, organized legislation for new state programs, facilitated public policy and managed intergovernmental affairs for various state agencies and commissions.
In July 1998, Governor Miller appointed General Masto to be his Chief of Staff.

General Masto is a native Nevadan. She attended the University of Nevada Reno, graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1986 with a major in Finance. She graduated Cum Laude from Gonzaga University School of Law, in Spokane, Washington in 1990.

[xchrom]

14. how come nothing serious ever came of the thousands

of disenfranchised voters in florida in 00?

lots of evidence there.

[struggle4progress]

15. Here's what the alleged crime is:

The criminal complaint (available as PDF via the LVRJ link) is essentially about an alleged bonus program: it repeatedly asserts ****** ****** paid ACORN employee ****** ****** an additional five dollars ($5.00) for submitting twenty-one (21) or more voter registration cards per shift in violation of NRS 293.805. Counts 1, 4, 7, 10, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, and 37 further allege a different violation of NRS 293.805: ****** ****** employed ****** ****** to register voters .. and conditioned his/her pay upon submitting twenty (20) registration cards per shift. Beyond that, there are several charges of violation of NRS 195.020, based on the alleged bonus program

NRS 293.805 Compensation for registration of voters based upon number of voters or voters of a particular party registered.
1. It is unlawful for a person to provide compensation for registering voters that is based upon:
(a) The total number of voters a person registers ... http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Nrs/NRS-293.html#NRS293Sec805

NRS 195.020 Principals. Every person concerned in the commission of a felony, gross misdemeanor or misdemeanor, whether he directly commits the act constituting the offense, or aids or abets in its commission, and whether present or absent; and every person who, directly or indirectly, counsels, encourages, hires, commands, induces or otherwise procures another to commit a felony, gross misdemeanor or misdemeanor is a principal, and shall be proceeded against and punished as such. The fact that the person aided, abetted, counseled, encouraged, hired, commanded, induced or procured, could not or did not entertain a criminal intent shall not be a defense to any person aiding, abetting, counseling, encouraging, hiring, commanding, inducing or procuring him. http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Nrs/NRS-195.html#NRS195Sec020

Not being a lawyer, I have no special insight into these charges. I would guess that the natural defense to the charge conditioned his/her pay upon submitting twenty (20) registration cards per shift would be: We always paid underperforming workers for the shifts they worked, regardless of their performance, but were under no obligation to continue their employment. I would also guess that the NRS 195.020 charges might be weak: if, for example, the accused did have a bonus program but had cause to think the bonus program was legal, they can scarcely have been involved in a deliberate attempt to encourage someone to commit a felony, which seems to be what the statute targets. So my guess is that the crux of the matter is whether ACORN had a bonus program offering an extra $5/day to anyone who registered 21 or more voters, and whether such a bonus program constitutes compensation for registering voters .. based upon .. total number of voters a person registers. The probable intent of NRS 293.805 is to discourage incentives to falsify voter registration, which is a felony under NRS 293.800, but ACORN training probably emphasized this fact to the field registrars, and it is difficult to imagine that an informed and rational employee would commit a felony to earn a $5 daily bonus

NRS 293.800 Acts concerning registration of voters; violations of laws governing elections; crimes by public officers.
... 5. A field registrar or other person who:
(a) Knowingly falsifies an application to register to vote or knowingly causes an application to be falsified ... is guilty of a category E felony ... http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Nrs/NRS-293.html#NRS293Sec800

It may be relevant that NRS 608 regularly discusses "wages or compensation" and defines wages as follows

NRS 608.012 “Wages” defined. “Wages” means:
1. The amount which an employer agrees to pay an employee for the time the employee has worked, computed in proportion to time; and
2. Commissions owed the employee,
but excludes any bonus ... http://law.justia.com/nevada/codes/NRS-608.html#NRS608Sec012

I'm guessing this is a weak and politically motivated case

[struggle4progress]

16. The Colin Haynes affidavit (PDF at LVRJ site) makes clear part of the prosecution's legal theory

... ACORN made continued employment .. contingent upon the canvasser registering a specific number of voters each day. According to these statements and ACORN training documentation that I reviewed, this number was set at twenty (20) forms per day. It was the policy of ACORN to terminate from employment canvassers who failed to obtain twenty (20) VRA forms per day ... Haynes at 3, lines 10 - 14

This is essentially repeated in the prosecution press release

Thus, the prosecution's legal theory is, in part, that terminating an underperforming field registrar is a de facto violation of the NRS 293.805 prohibition against providing compensation based on the total number of voters a person registers. If construed in this way, the statute would make termination of any hired field registrar for nonperformance a felony. That's obviously ridiculous, and I predict that the corresponding parts of counts 1, 4, 7, 10, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, and 37 of the indictment will be dismissed

[BobTheSubgenius]

17. My take on this, which I readily admit might be wrong,

is that a field employee could not be fired by ACORN if the employee repeatedly turned in zero registrations.

[struggle4progress]

18. "... A spokesman for ACORN, a nationwide grassroots organization, assailed the action as 'political

grandstanding.' The group stressed that it instigated the inquiry by turning over to the Clark County, Nev., registrar the names of 44 workers who were fired for submitting bogus registration forms and that it ordered an employee to stop offering bonuses to workers who turned in more than the daily goal of 20 forms. "There was no firm quota," spokesman Scott Levenson said ... 'If somebody got 17 (applications) every day, their job was pretty secure,' he said. 'What we were obviously concerned about is making sure people actually worked. If a canvasser came in every day with two registration forms ... that was a problem' ... Michael Slater, executive director of Project Vote, a national registration group that's funded ACORN's canvassing, said he was 'shocked' that ACORN now faces a criminal case while no charges were brought against the 44 ex-workers about whom the group alerted authorities ... "

Posted on Monday, 05.04.09
Nevada files voter fraud charges against ACORN
BY GREG GORDON
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1032298.html

[bjobotts]

19. Cynics.It encouraged workers to to try harder for ...you know, CEO bonuses

[bjobotts]

20. The can't say it encouraged them to break laws unless told to break laws-idiots

[bjobotts]

21. They weren't 'encouraged' to cheat. That's an assumption. Witchhunters I guess

[bjobotts]

22. Cops are encouraged to write more tickets but not break the law doing it.

[w4rma]

23. What a crock of BS. (nt)

[No Elephants]

24. Part of the obsession with ACORN lately is Obama's connection with

voter registration in Illinois. If you are not familiar with that, please google. Bottom line: He registered so many voters, especially minority voters, that he probably changed the face of Chicago politics for generations to come, not to mention maybe helping himself a bit in terms of recognition. (All very cool, IMO.

Registering voters has the stench of democracy, equality and freedom all over it. Hence the Pub abhorrence of it.

[No Elephants]

25. P.S. IMO, we need a comprehensive federal law of elections, at least for any vote involving a

federal office or issue. (Votes that involve only state and local issues and offices may fall under the 9th and 10th amendments, although they certainly affect interstate activities.)


I have written my Senators and Rep on this, begging for such legislation before the next Presidential election. I hope many Democrats do the same. (Hint)

[struggle4progress]

27. Nevada charges ACORN (LVRJ / 5 May)

Illegal quota system, officials say, spurred 'garbage' registrations
By ALAN CHOATE
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

... 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" ...

Bonnie Greathouse, the head organizer at the Las Vegas office, said .... "We've had bad publicity before, and all it does is inform the community that we're here working for the community ... People always come forward to our defense

http://www.lvrj.com/news/44354307.html

[obliviously]

28. We don't need this.

There have been more than enough votes for democratic candidates without this kind of help. Democrats pressed the charges and are in control of the investigation so it will come out alright.

[struggle4progress]

29. Statement from Scott Levenson, ACORN spokesman (KVBC)

"This recent attack by the Nevada Secretary of State and Attorney General is the latest in an ongoing assault designed to blame the victim and prioritize media grandstanding above the pursuit of justice.

From the time ACORN first suspected that some of its employees had tried to defraud ACORN by turning in bogus forms, ACORN repeatedly called its suspicions to the attention of election officials and requested that they investigate immediately.

Our policy all along has been to pay workers at an hourly rate and to not pay employees based on any bonus or incentive program. When it was discovered that an employee was offering bonuses linked to superior performance, that employee was ordered to stop immediately.

It is unfortunate that the Secretary of State can't distinguish the victim from the villain."

http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=10300205

[jpak]

30. ACORN stole mah baby boy!!111

:rofl: