Nevada’s law banning cash bonuses for voter registrations has been upheld by that state’s supreme court despite an ACORN-backed legal challenge to its constitutionality.
The decision upholds the 2011 criminal conviction of former senior ACORN executive Amy Adele Busefink for her role in a massive voter fraud conspiracy. Voter fraud, sometimes called vote fraud, election fraud, or electoral fraud, is a catch-all phrase coined by lawyers that encompasses a host of election-related improprieties.
As I reported in my book, Subversion Inc., at least 54 individuals associated with ACORN have been convicted of voter fraud. (Table of convictions available here.)
ACORN itself was convicted of voter fraud in Nevada last year in a case that arose out of the same set of facts as in the Busefink case.
Las Vegas Judge Donald Mosley said the actions of ACORN made “a mockery of our election process.” Mosley called ACORN’s crime “reprehensible” and said it was “the kind of thing you see in some banana republic, Uruguay or someplace, not in the United States.”
The case involved a conspiracy to provide illegal financial bonuses to voter registration canvassers for exceeding their daily quotas. Nevada law forbids the practice on the theory that such bonuses provide an incentive for canvassers to file bogus registrations.
The court found that the Nevada statute “neither violates the First Amendment nor is unconstitutionally vague.” Busefink argued unsuccessfully on appeal that Nevada’s ban on “the payment of individuals based upon the number of voters registered” violated her free speech rights.
This resounding affirmation of Nevada’s voter fraud law comes as photo ID laws nationwide come under attack by left-wing activists and their black-robed brethren. Many of the legal attacks on these electoral integrity laws are funded by Obama backer George Soros. Soros-funded advocacy groups Media Matters for America and the Center for American Progress have been working nonstop to undermine public support for common sense legislation promoting clean, honest elections.
Busefink was found guilty last year after making a plea deal regarding two gross misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for registration of voters. A gross misdemeanor is a crime that is more serious than a misdemeanor but less serious than a felony.
Busefink was sentenced to two years imprisonment but the jail time was suspended. She was also fined a total of $4,000 and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. Prosecutors had argued for a fine of just $1,000.
The criminal complaint filed against Busefink by the Democratic attorney general of Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto, in May 2009 stated that as “ACORN Regional Director for Voter Registration” Busefink “did aid, abet, counsel, encourage, hire, command, induce or procure ACORN to commit the crime of Compensation for Registration of Voters” by approving a bonus program called “Blackjack” or “21.” Voter registration canvassers were given cash bonuses for exceeding a daily quota of 20 registrations.
This wasn’t the first time Busefink was involved in shady electoral dealings. Even while under indictment in Nevada she ran the 2010 national voter drive for Project Vote.
Busefink also ran the disastrous joint ACORN/Project Vote voter registration drive of 2008. In that campaign, officials chucked an astounding 400,000 bogus voter registrations.
Project Vote is the unit of ACORN that Barack Obama worked for in 1992 when he led a successful get-out-the-vote effort that helped to make him a star in the left-wing activist community. Project Vote and ACORN have long been indistinguishable. Until recently Project Vote operated out of ACORN’s offices in Washington, D.C.
Busefink still works for Project Vote as its field director. (Project Vote filed a friend-of-the-court brief in her appeal in Nevada.)
ACORN Inc., the lead entity that controlled the ACORN network of activist groups, filed for bankruptcy on Election Day 2010.
Across the country state chapters of ACORN, which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, have been incorporating themselves separately in order to carry on ACORN’s work.
ACORN founder Wade Rathke openly admits that Louisiana-based A Community Voice is a resurrected version of Louisiana ACORN.
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