ACORN's Get-Out-The-Vote Operative Under State Felony Charges

Contrary to popular perception, the criminal group ACORN (Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now) is not quite a’moulderin’ in the grave, folks. Many might recall that Congress turned off the spigot of federal funds flowing into the coffers of the organization responsible for federal election law crimes all across the country. Many might all recall that ACORN itself eventually said it would shutter its operations.

But even with all that recent history, ACORN’s Project Vote is still in operation and one of its main directors is a woman under a cloud of criminal charges in the state of Nevada.

Project Vote is supposed to be separate from ACORN, at least on paper. But as Matthew Vadum writes, “Although legally separate entities, in practice the two are the same, as the congressional testimony of former ACORN/Project Vote employee Anita MonCrief can attest. They share office space, employees, and budgets. Project Vote continues to operate out of ACORN’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.”

Vadum also reports that the ramrod that heads up Project Vote is one Amy Busefink. Busefink is an ACORN employee under indictment for violating election laws in Nevada.

In May 2009, Nevada Atty. Gen. Catherine Cortez Masto, and Secretary of State Ross Miller, both Democrats, made public charges against two senior ACORN employees–Busefink, ACORN’s deputy regional director at the time, and Christopher Edwards, then ACORN’s Las Vegas field director. Both were implicated in a conspiracy in which they and ACORN as a corporate entity were charged. Edwards pleaded guilty and has turned state’s evidence. The trial of ACORN and Busefink is scheduled to begin on November 26.

The state’s charges list 26 felony counts of voter fraud and 13 of providing unlawful extra compensation to those registering voters, a practice forbidden under Nevada law because it incentivizes fraud. Canvassers were allegedly paid between $8 and $9 an hour and based on a quota of 20 voters per shift.

Yet this woman still has a high profile and important position running an ACORN adjunct voter registration project. Why has ACORN allowed this woman to maintain such a powerful job in its organization?

Vadum also warns that ACORN itself is simply “lying low” and biding its time until it comes back full force. And we can’t forget that ACORN’s buddies in Congress are salivating at the idea of reinstating federal funding for this left-wing criminal organization.

In fact, ACORN funding has not been permanently cutoff as it is. Sure federal funding has been cutoff but only temporarily. It can be reinstated at any time. The defunding ACORN must be re-upped as it were or the temporary ban runs out and funds can again begin flowing into ACORN’s pockets.

Opponents of ACORN must keep vigilant lest Congress quietly slip a renewal of ACORN’s federal funding into a bill here or there as a rider, an earmark, or add-on.