So what’s all the fuss about ACORN, and why should it matter to anyone?  Well, if you’re an American citizen, and you take citizenship seriously, it matters because our electoral process is being compromised.

As recent press reports have shown, ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) has been hard at work registering voters in all of the key battleground states for the upcoming election.  And, as many of these same reports attest, they’re busy being investigated for possible voter fraud.

Thousands of fake and duplicate names have been discovered, fake addresses, and even real people who don’t live anywhere near their “new” addresses.  Don’t believe me?  Just ask Tony Romo and the rest of the starting lineup for the Dallas Cowboys if they’ve recently moved to Nevada. 

But it gets better.

For example, there’s Indianapolis, which just won the award for most civic minded city in America as a result of having over 105% of its eligible voting population registered to vote – no doubt having to do with the fact that many of the recently submitted registration forms were on behalf of dead people, courtesy of ACORN’s efforts.  In one Indiana county alone (Lake County) officials stopped processing over five-thousand ACORN submitted forms after the first two-thousand turned out to be bogus.

In Ohio, one Cleveland man admitted he was given cash and cigarettes by ACORN activists to register seventy-two times, and over two-hundred thousand newly submitted voter registration forms have names that do not match a driver’s license or a Social Security number, as required by state law.

In fact, there are currently ongoing investigations of the group in at least fourteen other states, to say nothing of last week’s announcement by the FBI that it was opening an investigation of its own.

As if facilitating voter fraud weren’t bad enough, ACORN adds insult to injury by receiving much of its funding from taxpayer’s wallets.  That’s right, your tax-dollars subsidizing voter fraud – courtesy of government bureaucracies such as the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

And there’s even more to love about this organization; such as their role in our recent financial mess.  What role, you may ask?  That of using their “community organizing” muscle to pressure local banks to make risky loans in low income areas that they wouldn’t otherwise make.  And we all know what started to happen when the bubble of bad loans began to burst.

As a bonus for such good behavior, in the first (rejected) version of the recent bailout legislation, the Democrat leadership proposed that groups such as ACORN receive upwards of 20% of any net dollars the government would ultimately realize from the sale of any of the bad loans it would buy up from banks with that seven-hundred billion of our tax dollars.  It’s nice to have friends in high places.

So we have voter fraud to help elect liberal politicians, which then see to it that the group that commits the voter fraud gets federal dollars so it can fund committing more fraud and elect more liberals.  If that doesn’t meet the definition of corruption, then I don’t know what does.  Enron and Worldcom have nothing on these guys.

Finally, consider that Obama’s campaign has admitted to paying more than $800,000 to an ACORN subsidiary for “get-out-the-vote” projects – after first erroneously reporting the expenditure as simply “advance work”.

Usually, with most manufactured political scandals, we’re told that it’s the “seriousness of the charge” that makes the issue important and worthy of investigation.  Well, when it comes to massive amounts of potential electoral fraud, they would be right.  Only they’re not saying that now.  I wonder why?

If we, and rightly so, investigate and prosecute those guilty of stealing massive amounts of money in cases of corporate fraud, how much more so should we pursue those who may be trying to steal elections?

Don’t think such fraud is important?  Just remember that only 110,000 Ohio votes separated us from a President Kerry in 2004, to say nothing of coming just 400 or so Florida votes shy of a President Gore in 2000.  Still think it’s not important?

ACORN matters because we’re not just talking about money; we’re talking about the integrity of our electoral system.  And a corrupt electoral system leads directly to a corrupt political system – which affects every facet of our lives.

Despite all the smoke, we’re told not to be concerned about a fire.  Nothing to see here.  Move along.

It seems like there's something new everyday with this crowd.

Two developments in Ohio...  First, the Democrat Secretary of State is appealing to the US Supreme Court a federal circuit court's ruling that she has to check recent registrants against ID records to see that they're legit...  From the Plain Dealer:

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals late Tuesday sided with the Ohio Republican Party in its lawsuit against Brunner, telling her to cross-check the names of 666,000 new or updated voter registrations since Jan. 1 against a state driver's license database, and report the results to local elections boards. One in five of the newly registered voters lives in Democratic-rich Cuyahoga County.

Brunner said a cursory review found that about 200,000 of the 666,000 had provided a driver's license or Social Security number that does not match government records. That does not mean they committed fraud; they could have simply jotted down an incorrect digit, Republicans and Democrats agree. 

200,000??  A 1/3 of all the forms that were turned in?  Even accounting for mistakes, pens w/out enough ink or just idiocy, there's no way you account for this without massive fraud.  And keep in mind that Bush only won Ohio in 2004 by about 110,000 votes.

The New York Times reports that Justice Stevens has first review of the appeal, (as he oversees the 6th circuit), which should be interesting...since he's the oldest guy on the court and the one most likely to be replaced by the next President.

Second, we've another group in Ohio, (VoteFromHome08.com), that is essentially providing "housing" for people who want to claim Ohio residency in order to vote there, as opposed to wherever other state they happen to live in.  From the Columbus Dispatch: 

...Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien confirmed that he is investigating alleged voter and registration fraud involving 13 newly registered voters who came to Columbus for a get-out-the-vote campaign and used the same address, a small East Side home. ...

The individuals apparently were in Columbus working for Vote From Home, a group working to increase young-voter turnout in Ohio and using the house as their base of operation, O'Brien said.

"None of the people who registered had prior contacts with Columbus and Franklin County," O'Brien said. "You must be a resident of the state of Ohio in order to register and cast a ballot, and that's the issue being examined - whether they were proper residents of Ohio."

Two of the individuals voted in person at Veteran's Memorial while a third returned a completed absentee ballot by mail, said Matt Damshroder, deputy director of the Franklin County Board of Elections.

Another seven using the address requested absentee ballots by mail, but it is not yet clear if they have submitted them. Three others registered but did not request an absentee ballot or participate in early voting.

Election fraud is a fifth-degree felony with a maximum sentence of a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.

When a reporter visited the three-bedroom, 1,175-square foot home, a middle-aged woman answered the door and immediately turned the conversation over to a younger woman, who declined to identify herself and would say only that she didn't believe the reports of potential voter fraud were accurate.

"Everyone who is registered to vote here is within the parameters of the law," she said, as the woman behind her shouted, "just shut the door." Then, the door closed.

And now comes the latest about ACORN, which is already under investigation in 14 states...this report from the AP informs us that the FBI is now investigating:

WASHINGTON - The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election. 

A senior law enforcement official confirmed the investigation to The Associated Press on Thursday. A second senior law enforcement official says the FBI was looking at results of recent raids on ACORN offices in several states for any evidence of a coordinated national scam.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because regulations forbid discussing ongoing investigations particularly so close to an election.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, says it has registered 1.3 million young people, minorities and poor and working-class voters — most of whom tend to be Democrats. 

The DC Examiner calls for a RICO suit. 

The heat is on.

***

More at Michelle Malkin here and here - Hot Air - Marketwatch

It seems that Barack Obama needs to look back at the tape to see where he once stood on how much involvement and access ACORN was going to have with his campaign, compared to what he is now saying these day!

Yesterday, Barack Obama gave a brief statement to the media regarding ACORN. During that statement he mentions that there was an involvement with the organization some 13 years ago when he represented them to implement the "Motor Voter" law in Illinois. He said "that was my relationship and is my relationship to ACORN" and that "As an elected official, I have had some involvement with them, but they are not advising our campaign" and that "we don't need ACORN's help".

Well, it would seem that Senator Obama has a very short memory.

It was during the Heartland Democratic Presidential Forum held on December 1st, 2007, that Senator Obama gave the promise that these community organizations, ACORN among them, would have a very high level of access and influence on an Obama presidency. 

The question was asked,

If elected President of the United States, would you agree in your first 100 days to meet with a delegation of representatives from these various community organizations that campaign for community values... could they count on you in your first 100 days to sit down them?"

Obama replied,

Yes, but let me even say, before I even get inaugurated... during the transition, we're going to be calling all of you in to help us shape the agenda.  We're going to be having meetings, all across the country, with community organizations, so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America."

The old saying by Mark Twain seems to hold true here, "If you tell the truth, you never have to remember anything".

This just keeps getting better.  The St. Pete Times reports today that Mickey Mouse turned in a registration form in Florida...courtesy of the ACORN voter registration drive.

Mickey Mouse tried to register to vote in Florida this summer.

Orange County elections officials rejected his application, which was stamped with the logo of the nonprofit group ACORN. ...

The GOP accuses ACORN of registration fraud all over the country. In Las Vegas, authorities said the group's petitions included the names of the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.

"This is part of a widespread and systemic effort … to undermine the election process," says Republican National Committee chief counsel Sean Cairncross, who describes ACORN as a "quasicriminal organization."

And it's even signed!

No word yet on a hand writing analysis from the folks over at the Magic Kingdom.

***

More on ACORN: Hot Air - PJ Media - Michelle Malkin

This whole ACORN thing just keeps getting better.  And the Republicans are finally getting them in the public's sites.  McCain even spoke out about it today (after being asked though) at a town hall/rally.

(click video below or following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76jdskfy0RM)

First, we heard about ACORN's offices in Nevada being raided, computers and other equipment confiscated, etc...  Well now there's more.

From the WSJ:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- As most states finalize voter rolls this week, Republican officials are reviving alarms about vote fraud.

One of the biggest instances of suspicious registrations is here in New Mexico, where the Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a preliminary investigation into 1,400 potentially fraudulent voter registrations in the state's most populous county. ...

The Republican National Committee is trumpeting registration problems on part of its Web site titled, "You can't make this up." Among the incidents: In Virginia, a third-party registration group fired three workers who it said falsified nearly 100 applications.

In Nevada on Tuesday, state election officials raided the offices of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as Acorn, after receiving information about falsified registration cards. ...

In New Mexico, there is a history of razor-thin election margins, magnifying the impact of any potential fraud. At the end of election night in 2000, George W. Bush led by four votes. After discovering a box of misplaced ballots, officials declared Al Gore the winner by fewer than 400 votes out of about 600,000 cast. And in 2004, President Bush beat John Kerry by about 6,000 votes in the state. ...

Looks like past may be prologue if we're not careful.

Pressure to investigate voter fraud in New Mexico contributed to a Bush administration scandal that cost former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales his job last year. An internal Justice Department investigation concluded that David Iglesias, the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, was fired in 2006 largely because he didn't satisfy high-ranking Republicans' calls to investigate alleged vote-fraud cases. President Bush had privately complained to Mr. Gonzales about vote fraud in Albuquerque, blaming it for his loss to Mr. Gore in 2000, the investigation found.

Mr. Iglesias said a task force set up after the 2004 election struggled to find a prosecutable case. ...

I'd say they've just found a case.  No wonder the Dems howled bloody-murder when Bush dumped a guy for not doing his job...since part of the job he wasn't doing was investigating Democrat voter fraud.

More?

Officials in Missouri, a hard-fought jewel in the presidential race, are sifting through possibly hundreds of questionable or duplicate voter-registration forms submitted by an advocacy group that has been accused of election fraud in other states. ...

“I don’t even know the entire scope of it because registrations are coming in so heavy,” Davis said. “We have identified about 100 duplicates, and probably 280 addresses that don’t exist, people who have driver’s license numbers that won’t verify or Social Security numbers that won’t verify. Some have no address at all.” ...

FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said the agency has been in contact with elections officials about potential voter fraud and plans to investigate.

From Ohio:

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has turned in at least 65,000 cards to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in the last year. The board has investigated potentially fraudulent cards since August.

The group has faced similar inquiries in other large Ohio counties. And Nevada state authorities recently raided ACORN’s Las Vegas headquarters searching for evidence of fraud, according to the Associated Press.

Local representatives of the organization told Cuyahoga board members that they don’t have the resources to identify fraudulent cards turned in by paid canvassers who are told to register low- and moderate-income voters. ...

And get this, Indianapolis has 105% voter registration:

According to STATSIndiana, In 2007, Indianapolis/Marion County had an estimated population of 876,804. Of that number 232,607 were below 18 years of age, for a total of 644,197 people in Marion County/Indianapolis 18 or over and thus eligible to vote. (Indiana allows felons to vote as long as they are not incarcerated).

So we have 644,197 people eligible to be registered in Marion County/Indianapolis, and 677,401 people registered. Congratulations go to Indianapolis for having 105% of its residents registered!

And guess who's been paying ACORN to to Get-out-the-vote work??  I'll give you three guesses, and the last two don't count...

Via Say Anything...

Five weeks ago, one of our regulars here at SAB took note of a Michelle Malkin piece on ACORN’s nefarious “voter registration” activities, here.  Included was the fact that the Obama campaign had been forced to correct its filings with the FEC regarding payments made from “advance work” to “get-out-the-vote” work instead.  ACORN, which claims to be non-partisan and a non-profit, was paid over $800,000 by the Obama campaign, through its front group, Citizens Services, Inc. for that so-called “advance work.” Obviously, the documentation supporting that “advance work” claim by Obama was fraudulent. ...

Good luck hearing anything about this on the evening news. 

H/T: Michelle Malkin

More: Ace - Powerline - Stop the ACLU - Hot Air

Can someone please answer this question for me? How can Barack Hussein Obama be qualified to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces when he probably cannot receive a security clearance? He has not been able or has been unwilling to produce a valid birth certificate proving that he is a US citizen. He has associated himself with a domestic terrorist (Bill Ayers) who was a member of the Weather Underground, a con man (Tony Rezko) convicted of fraud and bribery, anti-American preachers (Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pflager), and a group under investigation for voter fraud (ACORN). He was a member of the "New Party", a political party established by the Democratic Socialists of America (the DSA).

When I served in the USMC, my background was thoroughly investigated before I could perform my duties in G2. Any of these things would have prevented me from receiving a security clearance. So how can Barack Hussein Obama possibly receive a security clearance?