ACORN Offshoot Sues State For Not Registering Voters On Welfare

The Obama-tied community organization famous for operating fraudulent voter registration drives during the 2008 presidential campaign is suing a state for failing to offer voter registration services at public welfare agencies.

New England United 4 Justice (NEU4J), a reincarnation of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), has joined forces with several other civil rights groups to sue Massachusetts for disenfranchising millions of low-income citizens by not registering them to vote during visits to welfare offices where they collect free taxpayer services. Specifically, this means poor ethnic minorities who traditionally vote Democrat.

This sort of minority disenfranchisement widens the gap between the registration rates of high and low-income individuals, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court this month. The 32-page complaint was posted by a national legal newswire that quotes a state welfare official indirectly committing to remedy the situation; “voting is one of the most important civic duties, and helping people comply is one of our top priorities,” the official proclaimed.

NEU4J is the reincarnation of ACORN in New England, according to a Judicial Watch analysis of records. Its president, Maude Hurd, was previously the national president of ACORN and a board member at ACORN Housing.  Its executive director is Noemi Ramos, who was ACORN Boston’s head organizer, and its vice president is former ACORN Massachusetts President Sandra Ramgeet. Much like ACORN, NEU4J promotes social justice by representing low and moderate income families.

This is scandalous because ACORN supposedly shut down after a series of exposés about its illegal activities, including fraudulent voter registration drives and involvement in the housing market meltdown. Read all about it in Judicial Watch’s special report, “The Rebranding of ACORN.” The legal scandals led Congress to pass a 2009 law banning federal funding for the Chicago-based community activist organization with strong ties to the president. For years ACORN enjoyed a huge flow of taxpayer dollars to promote its various leftwing causes.

The Obama Administration has violated the congressional ACORN funding ban, however. Last summer Judicial Watch uncovered records that show ACORN got tens of thousands of dollars in grants to “combat housing and lending discrimination.” The money came via Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which awarded a $79,819 grant to yet another ACORN reincarnation called Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA).

In addition to violating the ACORN funding ban, the grant was astounding because federal investigators had previously exposed fraud by the same Florida-based ACORN/AHCOA affiliate. HUD’s inspector general found that the group “inappropriately” spent more than $3.2 million in grants that were supposed to be used to eliminate lead poisoning in its housing program.