According to federal election law, any presidential campaign that participates in public financing is automatically audited after an election. When Barack Obama broke his promise to the American people by forgoing the public financing system, his campaign became the first since public financing became law to have a chance of not being audited. Federal law does still allow the Federal Election Commission to audit a presidential campaign that doesn’t participate in public financing, but at least four of the six FEC commissioners must first vote to pursue an investigation “for …
It must really be tough to be a public affairs guy at the Department of Justice who has to explain why the Civil Rights Division is not carrying out its enforcement responsibilities. I have posted previously about the failure of the Civil Rights Division to enforce the Help America Vote Act against Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who has refused to forward information about mismatches between the information contained on new voter registration forms and other state records to county election officials (they have also failed to sue the …
Since the housing bubble first began to burst, we have been quick to note the integral role that government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played in distorting the housing market. However, we have also been skeptical of some claims that the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) played in facilitating the crisis. The more we study, though, the more we see how the CRA, Fannie and Freddie, and now ACORN, all worked together to get us where we are today. Stanley Kurtz connects some dots in the New York Post: The …
Buried deep in this Slate article Jack Shafer finally gets around to explaining why ACORN’s indisputably proven record of voter registration fraud matters: As [University of Kentucky professor Tracy Campbell] notes in his book, compromising an election’s integrity in any way qualifies as fraud, whether it changes the outcome or not. So when John McCain shouts fraud in response to the sham voter-registration forms submitted by ACORN for “Mickey Mouse,” “Donald Duck,” and the Dallas Cowboys starting lineup, he’s right. Just because these registrations might have been purged before a …
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is asking President Bush to immediately block all federal funding for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) until the FBI completes its multiple investigations of the group’s suspected voter registration fraud. Boehner said his office has identified more than $31 million in direct funding to ACORN from the federal government since 1998. That number is likely substantially higher because ACORN also received money indirectly from federal block grants distributed by states and localities. In the letter to Bush, Boehner said: It …
Where Chairman Mao believed that all power comes from the barrel of the gun, the late Mayor Richard J. Daley believed that all power comes from the barrel into which precinct totals have been tossed. –David Nyham, The Boston Globe, Dec. 16, 1982 In America, it’s understood that power lies at the ballot box. So why is it we shake our heads and wag a finger at news coverage of election fraud thousands of miles away, yet ignore the same swindle when it happens right under our nose? Roman Buhler, …
Project Vote claims it is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is also a nonprofit corporation organized under Louisiana law but, since it actively “carries out multiple issue campaigns,” it is a partisan organization that is subject to federal taxation. This election year Project Vote and ACORN partnered to file 1.3 million new voter registrations, many of which have been proven to be utterly fraudulent. Project Vote proudly claims to have added large numbers of new voters to the rolls in 16 …
This past Friday the Supreme Court issued an order setting aside a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals order forcing Ohio’s secretary of state Jennifer Brunner to verify the accuracy of the information provided on applications for voter registration. The Ohio Republican Party had sued to force Brunner to comply with the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) after widespread reports of voter registration fraud. The Court expressed no opinion on whether Brunner was following HAVA — it threw the case out on the grounds that the Republican party didn’t have …
Want a preview of what an Obama Department of Justice would look like? Look no further than Obama for America general counsel Bob Bauer’s letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey last Friday. Bauer wants the special prosecutor investigating the U.S. attorney firings to start investigating John McCain, Sarah Palin and other Republicans such as Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Their crime? Calling on our nation’s law enforcement officers to investigate widespread reports of vote fraud. Bauer writes: As Election Day approaches – just as in 2004 …
Is there any doubt ACORN has seriously undermined the credibility of elections in this country? Attempting to downplay the damage ACORN has done to the rule of law, the San Francisco Chronicle reports: Doug Chapin, director of electionline.org, a group that tracks election reform issues, said the skirmish over ACORN is part of a long-running battle between the parties, with Republicans demanding tougher rules on voter registration to prevent voter fraud and Democrats warning against efforts that could knock legitimate voters off the rolls. “ACORN has become a rope in …
