“Ohio ACORN Hiring Canvassers To Help Obama” — in February 2008 (Updated)

Before it is “disappeared”, here’s a February 21, 2008, post from the Ohio Daily Blog — Ohio ACORN Hiring Canvassers To Help Obama — ipse dixit:

Wonder if this guy was one of them? We can see how well THAT worked out. Watch:

Ohio Voter Fraud Witness on Fox News, 10/13/08

Update: RBO tipster MP writes:

found this in the #3 comment at the link:

As you can see from the following 2/21/08 Ohio Daily Blog announcement, Ohio ACORN Political Director Mari Irwin Engelhardt was in-charge of the Obama Ohio Primary GOTV hiring

Mari Irwin Engelhardt works out of Cleveland. A simple internet search will show you that she has been deeply involved with Dennis Kucinich campaigns in the past.

Mari Irwin Engelhardt’s contact information.
(216) 374-1744
polnatoh@acorn.org

MP is correct. During Kucinich’s 2004 run for the presidency, Mari Engelhardt served as his National GLBT Director (even though identified as a Hillary Clinton supporter).

On October 8, 2008, The Union News reported:

Mari Engelhardt, ACORN political director for Ohio. …

Once stacks of registration cards are returned to ACORN offices, workers verify information by calling the phone number provided on the card, the board was told. If information is missing or ACORN identifies a suspicious card, it is given to the Board of Elections with a notice that it could be problematic.

ACORN workers who double-check cards can’t be expected to remember names and addresses previously verified, said Teresa James, an attorney for Project Vote representing ACORN.

Engelhardt said supervisors sometimes fail to prevent different canvassers from attempting to register the same person.

One commenter at Blogger Interrupted wrote June 4, 2008:

ACORN Ohio is CORRUPT due to knowingly employing ghost workers, knowingly violating election/voting laws and knowingly violating federal labor laws regarding its paid GOTV canvassers and voter registration canvassers. I’m a first hand witness and have completed affidavits for the US Department of Labor.

ACORN Ohio is also guilty of misclassifying their salaried employees to make them think that they are exempt from overtime laws. Ohio ACORN routinely works salaried employees AT LEAST 54 hours per week Monday – Saturday. When it is all said and done, salaried organizers make about $9.00 per hour for working very demanding and long hours.

Hourly GOTV and Voter Registration Canvassers are paid much less than their stated $8.00/hour wage because Ohio ACORN gets them to do things off the clock and refuses to pay them overtime.

People are exposing countless issues related to ACORN branch offices across the country. Here’s one critique (There are many others that can be found by searching the net):

http://www.rottenacorn.com/

After posting the same Ohio Daily Blog info posted above, the commenter added:

The question is: why is ACORN coordinating with the Obama campaign when ACORN is considered a non-profit organization? Also, why would the Obama campaign even consider contracting with labor law breaking slave drivers like ACORN?

Perhaps even more interesting is that on February 22, 2008, Katrina Vanden Heuvel at The Nation reported — gasp! surprise! — that “ACORN’s political action committee endorsed Barack Obama for President.”

This is an important nod from a group that understands the urgent needs of Americans most hurt by this economy and how to organize for social and economic justice.

ACORN is the nation’s largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, with over 350,000 member families, organized into 800 neighborhood chapters, in 104 cities nationwide. The endorsement reflects a belief that Obama – who worked as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago – understands that change must come from the ground-up, as part of a working coalition, rather than from position papers.

As Maude Hurd, ACORN’s National President, put it, “What it came down to was that Senator Obama is the candidate who best understands and can affect change on the issues ACORN cares about like stopping foreclosures, enacting fair and comprehensive immigration reform, and building stronger and safer communities across America.”

So, let’s see if we’ve got it right — Obama hires ACORN to GOTV for him in Ohio and ACORN endorses Obama.

Also be sure to read Rick Moran’s How to Steal Ohio at American Thinker.