Why Secretaries of State Matter
May 19, 2009
Over the last week ACORN has received a lot of press attention. But let’s take a closer look at an ACORN incident that happened during the 2008 campaign cycle.
If Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie is a prime example of how these powerful, but little known public officials can tip the scales in tight elections (see my earlier post), then Nevada’s Ross Miller shows how they can and should operate to prevent voter fraud and ensure fair elections. Last year, Mary Pat Flaherty reported in the Washington Post that Ross’ and the Nevada AG’s office raided ACORN’s operation in Las Vegas. The state also filed criminal charges against ACORN and two former employees for allegedly paying employees to sign up voters, with quotas of new voters required to keep their jobs and a “blackjack” bonus for signing up 21 new voters (hey, it’s Nevada). According to Flaherty:
“The Nevada office of ACORN had planned a potluck dinner at its Las Vegas office Tuesday night to celebrate the 80,000 newly registered voters its staff had signed up in Clark County as part of its work with low-income communities nationwide.
“Instead, their office was raided Tuesday morning by agents of the Nevada Secretary of State and Attorney General who alleged in an application for a search warrant that ACORN had hired 59 felons through a work release program as canvassers and submitted nearly 300 apparently fraudulent voter registration cards as part of the drive.
“The submitted voter cards included addresses and names that do not exist in Nevada, duplicate registrations, names culled from telephone books and names of Dallas Cowboys players, an investigator for the Secretary of State alleged in his affidavit for a search warrant.
“One ex-employee of ACORN reached by the state investigator told him she began making up names for her forms on days when it was too hot to work outside. ACORN canvassers are paid by the hour. Ex-employees also said they were expected to collect 20 complete forms a shift or risk probation and termination, the investigator said in his affidavit.”
ACORN southwest regional director Matthew Henderson called the raid “a politically motivate stunt” undertaken because many voters registered through ACORN are “working people and people of color and there may be corners of the political world where a high injection of new voters like those is unsettling some.”
Give me a break.
Both Secretary of State Ross Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto are Democrats. Glad to see that combating registration fraud and enforcing election laws are being done honestly in Nevada.
I’m looking forward to the trial. Maybe we can find out why ACORN chose the Cowboys.