Judge in Ohio: Suit against ACORN should be tossed

[struggle4progress]

Source: AP via WTTE (FOX 28)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A federal judge has recommended the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a conservative group against an organization that promotes voter participation through registration drives.

Magistrate Judge Timothy Black in Cincinnati released the opinion Wednesday in the suit brought by the Buckeye Institute against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN.

The lawsuit alleged that ACORN's voter registration drives amounted to organized crime because the group turned in a pattern of fraudulent forms.

A district court judge must sign off on the recommendation for the suit to be thrown out. The Buckeye Institute will have a chance to object.


Read more: http://www.wtte28.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.oh/30b7d0a7-www.wtte28.com.shtml

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Judge in Ohio: Suit against ACORN should be tossed
5/6/2009, 5:45 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/national-12/1241650193312480.xml&storylist=cleveland

[tomm2thumbs]

1. activist judges!!! the acorn doesn't fall too far from the tree

(sarcasm)

I always want Acorn to win against the Religious Nuts

[JonLP24]

2. Organized crime? Isn't that a little far-fetched?

As I understand they get paid for each registration form? Like Obama said I believe a few workers were lazy and thus resulted in multiple registrations.

[elleng]

3. Yes far-fetched,

and the judge figured it out!!!

[struggle4progress]

4. The Truth About ACORN's Voter Registration Drive (October 2008)

... Our canvassers are paid by the hour, not by the card, so there is NO incentive for them to falsify cards ...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/10

[JonLP24]

5. Oh ok. I think I was taking Obama's word for it.

Not refuting you, I think that's what Obama says. Overall according to your link it seems like they have a strong oversight program and I did hear before from CNN that they are required to turn in all apps.

[struggle4progress]

6. Gotta link? I don't remember Obama ever saying much about ACORN.

[JonLP24]

9. Ok he didn't go specifically into how ACORN gets paid

It took awhile, typing Obama and ACORN into google brings up alot of right wing websites. I made sure to add think to my previous post as I don't recall word for word of the press conference but I do remember it.

This is the part I recalled when I made my previous post.
“My understanding in terms of the voter fraud, because having run a voter registration drive, I know how problems arise, this is typically a situation where ACORN probably paid people to get registrations and these folks, not wanting to actually register people because that's actually hard work, just went into a phone book or made up names and submitted false registrations to get paid," Obama said. "So there's been fraud perpetrated probably on ACORN if they paid these individuals and they actually didn’t do registrations.”
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/obama-on-acorn.html

Entire quote regarding ACORN.
Obama replied: "first of all, my relationship to ACORN is pretty straightforward. It's probably 13 years ago when I was still practicing law, I represented ACORN and my partner in that representation was the US Justice Department in having Illinois implement what was called the 'Motor Voter' law, to make sure that people could go to DMV’s and drivers’ license facilities to get registered.. It wasn’t being implemented. That was my relationship and is my relationship to ACORN.

"There is an ACORN organization in Chicago," Obama continued. "They have been active. As an elected official, I've had interactions with them. But they are not advising our campaign. We've got the best voter registration and turnout and volunteer operation in politics right now and we don’t need ACORN’s help.

“My understanding in terms of the voter fraud, because having run a voter registration drive, I know how problems arise, this is typically a situation where ACORN probably paid people to get registrations and these folks, not wanting to actually register people because that's actually hard work, just went into a phone book or made up names and submitted false registrations to get paid," Obama said. "So there's been fraud perpetrated probably on ACORN if they paid these individuals and they actually didn’t do registrations.”

"But this isn't a situation where there's actually people who are going to try to vote 'cause these are phony names," Obama said. "And, it's doubtful (Dallas Cowboys quarterback) Tony Romo (whose name has been fraudulently submitted) is gonna show up in Ohio to vote. So this is another one of these distractions that gets stirred up in the course of a campaign.

"But what I want to make sure of, is that this is not used as an excuse for the kind of voter suppression strategies and tactics that we've seen in the past. Let’s just make sure everybody is voting, everybody’s registered. Let's make sure that everybody’s doing it in a lawful way."

[struggle4progress]

10. Thanks for the link!

[DWilliamsamh]

29. Of course there is a motivation to file false cards

You are being paid what $7.00/hr and you have a choice between: pound the pavement in all weather trying to get people to sign up, or sit at home in front of teevee, or in a coffee shop and filling out the forms yourself with what ever random names and numbers you come up with. of course there will be a group of folks (certainly a minority of the total) that opt for the easy way out. Look around your work place I bet you find a number of folks who probably get paid a lot more than the ACORN registration workers, who always opt for the easy way out.

[struggle4progress]

30. If you believe that ACORN level wages constitute a real incentive to felonious fraud,

then either you have a very low opinion of most people or you yourself would consider falsifying voter registration forms for a rather small and temporary advantage

Ask yourself: at what dollar level do you yourself consider committing a felony? Do you, for example, feel a real urge to snatch a woman's purse, whenever you think it might contain $30 or $40? Most people don't

There are, of course, people who will repeatedly engage in the armed robbery of a convenience store, when the expected take is around $20, just as there seem to be people who will hire themselves out as paid assassins for $50. They seem to be a small minority -- and they usually are not particularly balanced or intelligent

ACORN hires thousands of people nationwide for such registration drives, and unsurprisingly a very small number ignore the training and illegally falsify a few forms. In doing so, they often make mistakes that suggest some mental aberration -- because, after all, who of sound mind would really expect to get away with registering (say) "Mickey Mouse" as a local voter? ACORN catches such cases, by reviewing the registrations, and many others besides, and alerts the authorities -- and you can bet that after terminating those employees, ACORN reminds everyone else that falsifying forms is illegal, that anyone who falsifies forms will be caught, and ACORN will help the prosecution

[DWilliamsamh]

31. I am not slamming ACORN!

Chill out. The fact of the matter is MANY people who work at the level of wages offered in good faith for this kind of work are not aware of the seriousness of creating fraudulent voter registration forms. A potion of those people will look for "the easy way out." Yet another group of folks who work at that level know of the seriousness of the potential charge of producing fraudulent registrations and simply don't care.

I have said in this post and in my original post that these folks who created and turned in the fraudulent forms represented a small minority of ACORN workers - so where do you get off accusing me of having a "low opinion of most people?" I have a realistic understanding that in every group, there are those individuals who through ignorance or active disregard, will risk the consequences of laziness. That is all I was saying.

And I KNOW that ACORN flagged the fishy registrations, and reported them as such when they turned in all the registrations collected, as they were legally obligated to do. You are picking a fight with someone who understands the facts of the case and holds ACORN, and its voter registration efforts, in high regard

[BlooInBloo]

11. No, it's not a little far-fetched...

It's just plain making shit up.

[JonLP24]

12. That's what I meant

I apologize for not being more specific.

[BlooInBloo]

13. :)

[madmusic]

7. Glen Beck was spitting at the mouth about this stuff today

They keep digging the propaganda hole that got 'em where they are.

[struggle4progress]

8. Beck echoes tired falsehood that ACORN received stimulus funds (MediaMatters)

... During the May 6 broadcast of his Fox News program, Glenn Beck echoed a false Republican talking point by stating, "By including ACORN, or groups like them, in the stimulus package, we have guaranteed them billions of dollars to buy more votes for the party that helps them the most." Beck then likened this to "seed money for the Democratic votes." However, as Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 does not mention ACORN or otherwise single it out for funding; ACORN itself has said that it is ineligible for the funds and has no plans to apply for them ... http://mediamatters.org/research/200905060037

[Enthusiast]

14. As long as they repeat it, it is true. nt

[rpannier]

15. Don't tell Lou Dobbs

He'll have a complete breakdown

[Richard Steele]

16. The lawsuit was never meant to prevail; it was filed to provoke HEADLINES.

Red Meat for Morans.

[NewJeffCT]

19. You got it

so people like Beck & Dobbs can get the base worked up over it.

[No Elephants]

17. Someone, please help me out here. The only point of registering voters

is to get more people voting, right? I mean, a registration, in and of itself, has less than no value to anyone, unless and until the person registered goes to the poll and votes, right?

I have not heard that we've had a big problem in this country with fake people showing up at the polls to vote. Or with Mickey, Daisy and Pluto showing up at the polls to vote. So, a fake registration is of zero value to ACORN because a fake registration will never result in a single vote. A fake registration costs ACORN money and processing time, but gets no one anything. So, would Acorn pay even the tab off a Coke can for a fake registration?

As best I can tell, ACORN is the only one getting ripped off here. Not the nation, not any state, not any county, town or city and not any political party. So the Party of NO is suing ACORN for overpaying ACORN hires?

The judge should not only throw this case out of court. He should slam the plaintiff and its attorneys with fines. Otherwise, these Bushbots are going to sue ACORN is going to keep suing ACORN in every jurisdiction until ACORN is bankrupt. That--and discrediting Democrats in general and Obama in particular--not to mention minority voters--is the objective here, not fairness and not crimestopping.

Every day in every way, these people show themselves to be more and more repulsive.

[14thColony]

20. See what letting facts get in the way does?

You end up with a reality-based conclusion like this one!

As you no doubt understand, the real 'problem' with ACORN isn't and never was about the alleged fraudulent voter registrations. For the GOP it was about ACORN's real voter registrations, because ACORN registers people who historically tend not to vote for the GOP.

It's not about fake voters, it's about the 'wrong kind' of real voters!

[NewJeffCT]

18. Aren't they required to turn in false registration forms

and mark them as "false" or "invalid" or similar?

[Richard Steele]

21. Yes: ACORN alerted the authorities to the suspicious forms in the first place.

Because they are LEGALLY PROHIBITED from discarding
any form at all, even ones that are are as blatantly FAKE
as the ones signed "Mickey J. Mouse".

They noticed the blatantly fraudulent forms, and alerted the authorities
to their fraudulence before submitting them.

ACORN didn't commit the fraud in question, it REPORTED it.
And that's a matter of signed & dated RECORD.

[NewJeffCT]

25. Glenn Beck won't let facts get in the way of a good rant, though

and, neither will Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity.

[zbdent]

22. Let's see ... voter fraud? I think they found ONE instance of voter fraud ...

and his name was Ann Coulter ... but they let "him" off easy ...

[mod mom]

23. FYI Buckeye Institute = Ken Blackwell king of disenfranchisement.

[struggle4progress]

24. Ohio Right Wingers Resurrect Failed 2004 RICO Suit (Oct 2008)

Ohio Right Wingers Resurrect Failed 2004 RICO Suit Against ACORN
Posted by Steven Rosenfeld at 4:02 PM on October 14, 2008.

... A right-wing Ohio think tank filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing ACORN, the low-income advocacy group that has conducted massive voter drives in 2008, of violating voting rights law under the state's anti-racketeering laws. The group, whose staff includes Ohio's former Republican Secretary of State and Bush-Cheney '04 re-election campaign co-chair, J. Kenneth Blackwell, is skating on the thinnest of legal ice.

Why? Because the same tactic was tried in 2004 by some of the same GOP-connected election lawyers -- who were forced to withdraw their suit -- and because ACORN did not even register voters in the Ohio county where the suit was filed on Wednesday, Warren County, according to ACORN officials.

Warren County is notable because in 2004 county officials lied to the media and public and declared a homeland security emergency on Election Night, causing the county to take all ballots to a warehouse to be counted away from any public observers. The FBI denied it ever issued such a security alert. Moreover, subsequent reporting by the Cincinnati Enquirer found county officials had been planning to announce the alert days before the election.

But that was 2004. On Wednesday, the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute, filed the state RICO suit. While ACORN spokespeople said they would vigorously fight this suit in court, a more telling response comes from looking at what happened the last time GOP partisans used this same tactic -- in 2004 ...

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/103015/ohio_right_wingers_resurrect_failed_2004_rico_suit_against_acorn/

[fascisthunter]

26. another republican myth dissolved.... do they pay attention

pathological liars never do.

[VWolf]

27. Buckeyes vs ACORN

That's just nuts.

:)

[DWilliamsamh]

28. Hmmm FOX didn't actually report the Judge's reasoning....

Might the reasoning have something to do with the fact that the law REQUIRED ACORN to turn in ALL registration forms - even the ones ACORN itself flagged as probably invalid? Perfectly rational reason for calling this law suite what it is: nonsense.

But of course FOX (even the local affiliate) wouldn't report the facts, but opts to file a report that makes the judge appear arbitrary.