[Vision2020] “ACORN PAID ME IN CASH & CIGS”

[No Weatherman]

Where's the moral outrage?


1 VOTER, 72 REGISTRATIONS
"ACORN PAID ME IN CASH & CIGS"

PAWNS IN "FRAUD": Freddie Johnson, yesterday in Cleveland, and Lateala
Goins told of filling out voter registrations multiple times in the
ACORN scandal revealed by The Post yesterday.

CLEVELAND — A man at the center of a voter-registration scandal told
The Post yesterday he was given cash and cigarettes by aggressive
ACORN activists in exchange for registering an astonishing 72 times,
in apparent violation of Ohio laws.

"Sometimes, they come up and bribe me with a cigarette, or they'll
give me a dollar to sign up," said Freddie Johnson, 19, who filled out
72 separate voter-registration cards over an 18-month period at the
behest of the left-leaning Association of Community Organizations for
Reform Now.

"The ACORN people are everywhere, looking to sign people up. I tell
them I am already registered. The girl said, 'You are?' I say, 'Yup,'
and then they say, 'Can you just sign up again?'" he said.

Johnson used the same information on all of his registration cards,
and officials say they usually catch and toss out duplicate
registrations. But the practice sparks fear that some multiple
registrants could provide different information and vote more than
once by absentee ballot.

ACORN is under investigation in Ohio and at least eight other states —
including Missouri, where the FBI said it's planning to look into
potential voter fraud — for over-the-top efforts to get as many names
as possible on the voter rolls regardless of whether a person is
registered or eligible.

It's even under investigation in Bridgeport, Conn., for allegedly
registering a 7-year-old girl to vote, according to the State
Elections Enforcement Commission.

Meanwhile, a federal judge yesterday ordered Ohio's Secretary of State
to verify the identity of newly registered voters by matching them
with other government documents. The order was in response to a
Republican lawsuit unrelated to the ACORN probe in Cuyahoga County, in
which at least three people, including Johnson, have been subpoenaed.

Bribing citizens with gifts, property or anything of value is a
fourth-degree felony in Ohio, punishable by up to 18 months in prison.
And it's a fifth-degree felony — punishable by 12 months in jail — for
a person to pay "compensation on a fee-per-registration" system when
signing up someone to vote.

Johnson, who works at a cellphone kiosk in downtown Cleveland, said he
was a sitting duck for the signature hunters, but was always happy to
help them out in exchange for a smoke or a little scratch. He'd
collected 10 to 20 cigarettes and anywhere from $10 to $15, he said.

The Cleveland voting probe, first reported by The Post yesterday, also
focused on Lateala Goins, who said she put her name on multiple voter
registrations. She guessed ACORN canvassers then put fake addresses on
them. "You can tell them you're registered as many times as you want —
they do not care," she said.

ACORN spokesman Kris Harsh said the group does not tolerate its
workers paying people to sign the voter-registration cards.

ACORN's political wing has endorsed Barack Obama for president, but
Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign in Ohio, said ACORN has
no role in its get-out-the-vote drive.

During the primary season, however, the Obama camp paid another group,
Citizen Service Inc., $832,598 for various political services,
according to Federal Elections Commission filings. That group and
ACORN share the same board of directors.

In Wisconsin yesterday, John McCain blasted ACORN.

"No one should be corrupting the most precious right we have, that is
the right to vote," he said.

It's a right Johnson will exercise. "Yeah, I've registered enough — I
might as well vote."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10102008/news/politics/1_voter__72_registrations_132965.htm