By Isaac MacMillen
Let’s say that you are a modest, but relatively successful business owner. Every 2 years the IRS comes and performs an audit to ensure you are in compliance with federal regulations. And each year, they enter your office with reports of discrepancies in your tax forms, indicating that you have been underreporting your profits. You respond, saying that the charges are bogus, and intended to bar you from making a profit. Furthermore, you state, an internal investigation has shown that your records are clean.
Once the audit is complete, however, the IRS is proven right. You then acknowledge the error, blame it on your accountants—while taking credit for helping the IRS pinpoint those accountants—and state that you will fix it. This happens every two years. Would you honestly think that the IRS would continue to let you make the same excuse year after year—while the problem persists? (Of course, the IRS is probably the only government organization that will strictly not tolerate fraud, but I digress….)
Unfortunately, this same scam is being perpetrated on the American public by the radical left-wing group ACORN and its affiliates. While ACORN has been in the news lately for allegations of voter fraud this election, as well as its association with Barack Obama (they also endorsed him), the general population may be unaware that this has become a bi-annual tradition here in America.
This tax-funded organization (up to 40 percent of its $40 million budget is from the feds), which has done everything from calling for “exit visas” to keep businesses in low-income areas to pressuring banks to offer high-risk loans to low-income families, routinely works to register those it wants deemed as voters. Each election cycle, officials come after them with allegations of fraud. And each time, ACORN denies it, and then blames it on its canvassers and promises to fix it.
Then two years later, it happens again. Rinse and repeat.
Some of the more notorious examples:
In 2006, Washington State convicted 3 ACORN employees on charges of voter fraud, as nearly 1800 fraudulent registrations were uncovered by election officials. King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said in a statement that ACORN, while not charged, would be kept under watch by the state, and could face criminal charges if the group’s “quality control” measures don’t produce results.
In Kansas City, MO, ACORN ensured that “every” voter registration form was legitimate. But the election board in Kansas City, Missouri, discovered about 15,000 problematic registrations. After the Kansas City election board turned over 1300 voter registration applications to the feds, four ACORN workers were indicted (and later convicted) of voter fraud. ACORN then turned around and said it had “cooperated” and “turned in” those workers to the authorities.
St. Louis, MO, also turned in about 1500 ACORN forms to the government. 8 ACORN workers later plead guilty after submitting fraudulent applications. Following the pleas, ACORN announced that it would be “improving” its quality control measures.
In 2004, ACORN faced criminal investigation in the state of Florida for voter registration irregularities. Aside from questionable forms, ACORN was also coming under scrutiny for claims of a partisan memo distributed inside the officially non-partisan organization, and questions of fraud in getting signatures for a ballot proposal. Additionally, they have turned in late registrations in Florida. While the convictions were later dropped, similar accusations have resurfaced this year after a Mickey Mouse registration appeared—with ACORN’s seal stamped on it.
Allegations continue to pile up this year, with 11 of the 21 states in which ACORN is operating questioning the organization. Pennsylvania, Ohio (with a civil RICO suit being filed), Indiana, Nevada (where the Dallas Cowboys’ staring lineup was registered), Missouri, Wisconsin—all these and more have reported highly questionable activity, to the point that now the FBI is getting involved.
Yet ACORN’s “control” measures don’t seem to be working.
Presently, ACORN is disputing claims by Nevada’s Clark County Registrar that “thousands and thousands and thousands” of bad registration forms submitted were not flagged by ACORN as being fraudulent. ACORN is denying the charge, stating that they flagged 3000-4000 forms, and that, whatever the number they missed, it is far below that stated by the Registrar.
And in Ohio, they admitted that they don’t have the resources to check for fraud, with Ohio’s ACORN director answering “not perfectly, no” when questioned if their internal controls were able to spot duplicate applications.
Thus the pattern continues. Allegations. Denials. Charges. “Cooperation.” Conviction. Promises.
Like our dishonest businessman at the beginning of the article, ACORN has refused to come clean. It is time for the federal government to intervene and stop this taxpayer-funded organization from abusing the system any longer. Broken promises mean nothing. And fraudulent elections can cost us everything. The time has come to stop ACORN now.
Isaac MacMillen is a contributing editor of ALG News Bureau.
