IMAO Citizen of the Day: “Yeah, I’ve registered enough – I might as well vote.”
1 VOTER, 72 REGISTRATIONS
‘ACORN PAID ME IN CASH & CIGS’
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.”
(23 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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October 10th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Makes you feel all good inside to know these things, huh.
October 10th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Vote early and often; it’s the Democrat way.
But will they be awake and sober enough to actually cast a vote with no hanging chads?
October 10th, 2008 at 11:19 am
If you don’t let him vote for Me 72 times, then you’re all a bunch of racist crackers!
October 10th, 2008 at 11:31 am
You need to register with a real ID to get a license to *fish*, but not to vote. We’re officially batshit crazy.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Sounds like a lot of Obama’s campaign funds are stimulating the local economy. Let the good times roll.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Hey, I signed up with ACORN 37 times and didn’t get jack-squat! Probably because I’m white! Cheap-ass racists!
October 10th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Gee, I’m noticing one thing that most of these illegal sign-ups have in common, as ACORN tries to get out the vote for Obama…looks like ACORN plays the race card pretty hard.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
150+ years ago, the Democrats decided that blacks should count as only three fifths of a person for representational purposes, so by their math, this guy only voted 43.2 times.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I’m sorry, is this a parody?
I think the only exaggeration is the number, but not by much.
How’s a political satirist supposed to make a living in an Obama presidency? Satire means taking things beyond the real to make it funny. Obama is already over the edge of what we can imagine in terms of pure outrageous action.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
http://www.americanthinker.com/
we’re acorn kids, we don’t die, we multiply.
October 10th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Kent:
It’s not a parody. Here is the original NY Post story.
Yes, it reads like an IMAO parody. But the left has reached the point where it’s hard to parody them. The Democratic party is a parody of itself.
October 10th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
What astounds me is that the article says registering to vote 72 times is only “in apparent violation of Ohio laws.”
October 10th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Borrowing a quote from Fox Mulder:
ACORN is a bunch of “invertebrate low-lifes whose moral dipsticks are about two drops short of bone dry.” But don’t question their patriotism…
So what will be the moonstream media reaction? Oh, never mind.
October 10th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
If you belong to ACORN you are GAY. Really GAY. Gayer than gay! Gayest ever! Gayer than a 3 dollar bill! A Queer! Nancing is your deal! You nance about town seeking illegal votes! ACORN = Nancing!!!
October 10th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Hi, I’m from Acorn and you look just fabulous! I’d like you to sign our petition! It doesn’t matter if you do, because we have lots of gay guys back at headquarters that dress really queer and are making up names as we speak! Want a BJ ? I’ll give you one if you’ll sign here…
October 10th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Hi, I’m from Acorn and I’m like totally gay and I’ll do anyone, at anytime for any amount if you will just sign our voting roles! We are queer…we’re here…so just sign…get a BJ…go home…
October 10th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Hi, I’m from ACORN. Did you know that ACORN rhymes with BJ? Well it does lucky man! Drop trou and we need your DNA sample AHHHHHH…
October 10th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I live in Cleveland, and I recognize that guy.
He peed on my apartment building and asked for 50 cent before he zipped up.
Typical Democrat.
October 10th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
A seven-year-old girl, eh? Did she believe that Obama was gonna change it? And rearrange it?
October 10th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
You mean ACORN is illegally signing voters in 15 states.
And I hear they are trying to up the ante
October 10th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I guarantee you ACORN will get in trouble over this.
It’s against the law to give cigarettes to a 19-year-old in Ohio.
I mean, it’s not like we don’t have government here.
October 10th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
I agree #9, this seems like a true happening to me. Scary.
October 11th, 2008 at 2:11 am
It’s not guys like him voting twice that is the problem. It’s crooked county election officials who accept all the bogus ACORN registrations. They know those are votes that can be voted on election day. See Cook county.
October 11th, 2008 at 8:15 am
When I was growing up in the Socialist Republic of Maryland the Liberal Democratic mantra, which gave us Stenny Hoyer and Babs Mickelski, was:
Vote Early
Vote Often
Vote Dead
Nothing’s change. Situation normal. Nothing to see here. Move along.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
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October 16th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
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