(CNSNews.com) – Criminal charges filed in Nevada against ACORN, a liberal activist group that is under investigation in several other states for alleged voter registration fraud in 2008, have sparked increased concerns about the organization’s partnership agreement with the U.S. Census Bureau to help recruit workers for the 2010 Census.
ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is among 281 non-profit groups and 111 corporations that have signed partnership agreements with the Census Bureau as of April 13. Those partners will help provide 1.4 million workers to conduct door-to-door operations. (See Partner List)
“The Bureau needs to reconsider ACORN’s involvement as a partner in light of these new charges in Nevada,” Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told CNSNews.com.
“I previously spoke about ACORN’s involvement in the Census,” said McHenry. “But in light of these charges, I think it makes clear that they should not be part of the partnership program with the Census.”
On Monday, the state of Nevada filed charges against ACORN that are related to the manner in which organization compensated workers who were collecting voter registrations. (See Nevada Attorney General Announcement)
“By structuring employment and compensation around a quota system, ACORN facilitated voter registration fraud in this state,” said Attorney General Catherine Cortes Masto in a statement. “Nevada will not tolerate violations of the law by individuals, nor will it allow corporations to hide behind or place blame on their employees when its training manuals clearly detail, condone and, indeed, require, illegal acts in performing the job for the corporation.”
The Nevada charges will not play a role in the group’s work with the Census Bureau, ACORN spokesman David Redlener told CNSNews.com.
In a written statement, he said that ACORN would primarily be responsible for “mailings and other in-house communications; displaying and/or distributing 2010 Census promotional materials; providing space to train new employees; sponsoring community events to promote participation in the Census; allowing the Census bureau to post ACORN’s name on the 2010 Census Web site; [and] linking 2010 Census Web site to ACORN’s Web site.”
Redlener further said the organization does not know if it will receive any federal funds for its partnership.
The constitutionally required Census is done every 10 years and determines how congressional seats are apportioned among the states. Unlike in 2000, Congress has not authorized a bipartisan U.S. Census Monitoring Board to oversee the 2010 enumeration.
“There needs to be proper oversight of this and I’m going to be very involved in insuring that we have proper oversight of this process and that it is an apolitical enumeration and a true count of all of those in our country,” McHenry said.
ACORN’s role is “alarming,” said Ken Blackwell, who was national chairman of the U.S. Census Monitoring Board from 1998 to 2001.
“They have a record riddled with improprieties,” Blackwell told CNSNews.com. “There is no bipartisan oversight and management of the census. It could lead folks to seriously question the integrity and objectivity of the census.”
However, ACORN should not be banned from partnering with the Census Bureau, as community groups are typically necessary in helping the government count people, Blackwell said.
“There is always an army of paid employees and volunteers that need to be there,” he said. “My concern is that an organization that made up people through false voter registration -- a reasonable person would suspect they would do the same in the Census count. Does that mean bar ACORN across the country? No. It does mean we need transparency and bipartisan oversight.”
The Census Bureau could not answer questions specifically on ACORN Tuesday, but a spokesman stressed that there is adequate oversight.
“In the partnership program, all the organizations do is help raise awareness about the Census,” Bureau spokesman Raul Cisneros told CNSNews.com. “Congress has oversight of the bureau and the census.”
The Nevada probe began last year when the Clark County registrar of voters, Harvard “Larry” Lomax, received numerous voter registration applications that appeared to be fraudulent. The forms were identified by the serial numbers on the application as those issued to ACORN for registering new voters. The Clark County registrar’s office filed a complaint with the secretary of state’s office.
In Nevada, throughout 2008, ACORN paid canvassers between $8 and $9 per hour to
register voters. The canvassers had to sign up 20 voters per shift or be terminated, a policy that was outlined in the training materials for ACORN, according to the Nevada attorney general’s Office.
From July through October, ACORN had a “Blackjack” program that provided a $5 per hour bonus for employees who registered 21 or more voters per shift.
“Nevada will not tolerate violations of the law by individuals nor will it allow corporations to hide behind or place blame on their employees when its training manuals clearly detail, condone and, indeed, require illegal acts in performing the job for the corporation,” Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said in a statement.
Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller stressed, “It’s important to keep in mind that this was a case of registration fraud, not voter fraud.”
Monday, ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson denied the charges. “Our policy all along has been to pay workers at an hourly rate and to not pay employees based on any bonus or incentive program,” he told the Associated Press.
Washington State filed charges in 2007 against several paid ACORN employees and supervisors for allegedly falsifying 1,700 voter registration forms. In 2008, a Pennsylvania ACORN employee was convicted for fabricating 29 voter registration forms.
These examples were cited in a Mar. 24 letter from Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) to President Barack Obama. (See Shelby letter)
“Past allegations of fraud should raise great concern about the accuracy of data provided by this organization,” Shelby wrote.
“To keep the census non-partisan, we cannot allow a biased, politically active organization taking any type of official role in the process, let alone recruitment,” said Shelby.
“Using ACORN to mobilize hundreds of thousands of temporary workers can surely lead to abuses for those who want to gain political advantage, just as we saw with the voter registration issues in past elections. The laws that govern voter fraud were not enough to dissuade those with the intent to throw an election, and it is doubtful that laws governing fraud in the census will be any more effective against such deceitful intents.”
The Census became a controversial issue this year when news surfaced that the Obama administration allegedly planned to move oversight of the national headcount from the Commerce Department to the White House. After complaints that led in part to Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) not accepting the Commerce Secretary position, the White House dropped the plan.