The dirtiest administration, without equal, in the history of America.
Working Families Party /ACORN Voter Fraud in Troy, NY. Moe Lane (hat tip Larwyn)
Affidavits: Ballot abuse rampant
Dozens of forged and fraudulent absentee ballots from people registered to vote on the Working Families Party line were filed in the Sept. 15 primary elections in Troy, the Times Union has learned.
[snip]
Documents at the county Board of Elections show the fraudulent ballots were handled by or prepared on behalf of various elected officials and leaders and operatives for the Democratic and Working Families parties. A Troy housing authority employee, Anthony Defiglio, who sources said oversees vacant properties for the Troy Housing Authority, also handled many of the fraudulent ballots, according to public records and interviews with voters who said they were duped.
Via Big Government, which helpfully points out that the Working Families Party is another facet of ACORN, to the point where they share current officers like Bertha Lewis and former affiliates like Patrick Gaspard (who is actually working even now with the WFP in local NY politics). This should surprise fewer people than it will; it’s long been an open secret that most of these groups live in each other’s pockets.
According to the Times Union: (hat tip Jonathan Galt)
Dozens of forged and fraudulent absentee ballots from people registered to vote on the Working Families Party line were filed in the Sept. 15 primary elections in Troy.
Documents at the county Board of Elections show the fraudulent ballots were handled by or prepared on behalf of various elected officials and leaders and operatives for the Democratic and Working Families parties.
There may be as many as 50 absentee ballots that were forged, according to people close to the case. Countywide, there were 126 absentee ballots applied for on the Working Families Party line.
What isn’t mentioned is that WFP is nothing more than a front group for ACORN. Or as Roger Stone put it:
The Working Families Party is not about working people or families and it isn’t really a party. The WFP is a wholly owned subsidiary of ACORN. Bertha Lewis co-chair of the Working Families Party is the Executive Director of New York ACORN. New York ACORN leader, Steven Kest was the moving force in forming the party and WFP headquarters are located at the same address as ACORN’s national and New York office at 88 Third Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.
WFP is essentially a money funnel which pays for an aggressive door to door canvas. Largely funded by unions, the WFP is ACORN’s “political arm” in New York State. Candidates supported by the Working Families Party and issues supported by ACORN are both advocated on the door steps of target voter homes as they share one major voter canvas.
Adding more evidence to the ACORN-WFP link is Erick Erickson’s examination of Bertha Lewis’ leaked rolodex. Erickson predicted that “With ACORN’s growing negative reputation, it is only a matter of time before it spills over to the Working Families Party.”
cont on link
UPDATE: From Newsbusters: (hat tip Rusty)
The WFP has been shown to be nothing more than a front for ACORN and its radical policies. Why?
- RedState has demonstrated that the WFP was founded by key members of ACORN, and shares many of its political strategies.
- The WFP lists ACORN as an affiliate program directly on their Web site.
- Roger Stone calls the New York Working Families Party "one of ACORN's most successful projects".
- The New York Post analyzes the many shady dealings of the WFP, and its affiliation with ACORN.
None of these ties were explored in the Times Union article. In fact, when asked about how much investigation was put into this potential link, the only response received thus far has been: "Nothing on Acorn in this as of yet that I'm aware".
Yet a simple review of the above material demonstrates that these fraudulent ballot allegations may have been orchestrated by a higher entity - namely, ACORN. Seemingly just as strange, is that a quick look into the history of one of the key components in the story, Karen Scharff, shows a direct link to the organization itself.
Scharff, according to the article, is co-chair of the Capital District WFP. A little further digging reveals so much more...
- Scharff has been involved in health care meetings coordinated by her group, Citizen Action, and ACORN. A picture of one such event appears on the Times Union blog.
- Her name appears on a letter of support for ACORN, in which criticism of their work is labeled as ‘mainly partisan' attacks.
- An article regarding the power of fusion politics, a tactic used by the WFP, shows Scharff's activism in the election of Albany District Attorney, David Soares. The article covers the tandem work of the WFP and Citizen Action, along with the strong ties that the WFP has with ACORN. One key element here is the mention of Bertha Lewis who is described as ‘the executive director of ACORN's New York City chapter'. Lewis also serves as co-chair for the WFP.
- Another article celebrating the Soares victory appears in the Nation, in which Scharff's WFP work is mentioned alongside the work of Dan Cantor. Cantor also serves as Executive Director for the WFP, and was national organizer for the ‘New Party' in the ‘90s, a socialist group with strong ties to ACORN. In fact, the New Ground described the New Party's ‘biggest asset and biggest liability' as ACORN.
- Scharff serves on the Advisory Board for the Center for Working Families, alongside Jon Kest, Director of the New York Association of Community Organization for Reform Now.
Further research shows that the aforementioned names are constantly intertwined amongst various resources.
It is important to recognize that ACORN's corrupt little arms have branched out everywhere. Examples of such aren't always as blatant as what we have seen recently in the media. They control many other aspects, all the way down to the local level. And it is just as important to hold the local media accountable for connecting the dots of corruption, rather than simply, as can be paraphrased from the Times Union response, ‘nothing that we're aware of yet'.
Make yourself aware - the media, as you know, simply won't do the work for you.
