Report from the bloggers' teleconference about ACORN

A year ago few Americans had heard of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). But multiple accusations of vote fraud made last year have considerably raised the group's profile.

I can't remember who wrote it, but last fall someone quipped about ACORN that it was where 1960s radicals who didn't land "work" in academia ended up.

But the group isn't just a '60s hangover. People my age have worked for ACORN, such as Barack Obama, who worked for ACORN's Project VOTE in 1992.

Rather than hide its head in shame, ACORN will help recruit temporary workers for next year's Census, which will, among other things, determine the next Congressional reapportionment.

ACORN conducts its voter registration drives in heavily Democratic areas.

And there is more recent ACORN news. This morning Republican National Lawyers Association Vice President Heather Heidelbaugh testified about the organization in front of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which is chaired by Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).

This afternoon I had the honor of taking part in a bloggers' conference call with Heidelbaugh, who repeated charges she made in front of the committee and added some additional information.

Much of what Heidelbraugh discussed in Washington was based on the testimony of whistleblower Anita MonCrief, and Marcel Reid, the chairwoman of the DC chapter of ACORN, who in Heidelbraugh's words, "was in concurrence with the concerns and allegations that we have against ACORN."

And there are a bunch of them. ACORN voter registrars receive inadequate training, and the training they do have is "subterfuge," Heidelbaugh said, and "they have training manuals but they don't train their employees on the training manuals."

ACORN also encourages duplicate voter registration, she alleges, by having its registrars ask people not if they are registered to vote, but if they have voted.

Those voter registration drives "are principally designed to increase funds from their supporters' foundations donors." That's because, Heidelbaugh explained, ACORN receives about $17 per completed registration card, its "Money for the Muscle" program.

ACORN had a goal of turning in 1.5 million registration cards for last year's election. To give you some perspective, that's roughly the population of Philadelphia. But ACORN, Heidelbaugh offered, was shooting for "forty percent accuracy (of those registered), and they may not have reached that."

Again, ACORN is focused on raising money. Registrars have a quota, Heidelbaugh told us, of twenty completed registration cards per day. If they have fewer than that they are fired. Some registrars are paid in cash--which is illegal.

As for clearly fraudulent registrations, such as the notorious case where Dallas Cowboy players were registered by ACORN to vote in Nevada, the Republican National Lawyers Association vice president repeated the group's claim that some states require that all registration cards be turned into the appropriate authorities. But Heidelbaugh mentioned a Pennsylvania case she worked on, and at least there, there is no such stipulation.

Heidelbaugh told us she asked the House subcommittee to provide oversight over ACORN, "in regards to to the numerous violations of law, because they continue to seek and receive federal tax dollars."

Powerful stuff. In fact, so much so that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly requested that Nadler hold an ACORN oversight hearing. Nadler was noncommital.

The ranking Republican on Nadler's subcommittee, Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, issued a press release about today's hearing:

Vote fraud is an extremely serious issue, and must be dealt with using a firm hand to ensure the sanctity of our Constitution and the integrity of our elections are upheld.

The allegations brought forth against the practices of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known as ACORN, during and after the 2008 presidential campaign, as well as the testimony we heard today about ACORN's sketchy accounting practices, potential voter fraud and coordination with the Obama campaign deserve to be examined closely.

I am in complete agreement with Judiciary Chairman Conyers repeated requests that we should hold an oversight hearing dedicated to examining ACORN's activities. Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Nadler made no commitments during the hearing. If he is unwilling to hold a subcommittee hearing, then we should have a full committee hearing on ACORN to start getting to the bottom of these issues and ensure vote fraud plays no part in our elections process.

During the question and answer session, I asked Heidelbaugh if there are any current ACORN registration drives, she said she didn't know. Granted most of the elections this year are lower-profile municipal elections, but there are Congressional and many statewide contests taking place in 2010.

And ACORN should have no role in them.

UPDATE 5:00pm CDT:

Dr. Melissa Clouthier took part in the teleconference too. Here's her take. And Fausta's.

Related posts:

ACORN to assist in 2010 Census

Mother of mercy, a RICO suit against ACORN?

CNN: Tough on Obama's ACORN ties

ACORN Lake County, Ind. vote fraud update: Each of the first 2,100 registrations are phony

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