Servo wrote: 
Servo, you know as well as I that each state has its own voting laws. - Oh, you didn't? Figgers. Do the research, then get back to us.  Try to condense your reply, if you can.

 Servo wrote: 

In the broadest sense, a fraud is a deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and is also a civil law violation. Many hoaxes are fraudulent, although those not made for personal gain are not technically frauds. Defrauding people of money is presumably the most common type of fraud, but there have also been many fraudulent "discoveries" in art, archaeology, and science.

In criminal law, fraud is the crime or offense of deliberately deceiving another in order to damage them - usually, to obtain property or services unjustly. <1> Fraud can be accomplished through the aid of forged objects. In the criminal law of common law jurisdictions it may be called "theft by deception," "larceny by trick," "larceny by fraud and deception" or something similar.

Fraud for profit involves industry professionals. There are generally multiple loan transactions with several financial institutions involved. These frauds include numerous gross misrepresentations including: income is overstated, assets are overstated, collateral is overstated, the length of employment is overstated or fictitious employment is reported, and employment is backstopped by conspirators. The borrower's debts are not fully disclosed, nor is the borrower's credit history, which is often altered. Often, the borrower assumes the identity of another person (straw buyer). The borrower states he intends to use the property for occupancy when he/she intends to use the property for rental income, or is purchasing the property for another party (nominee). Appraisals almost always list the property as owner-occupied. Down payments do not exist or are borrowed and disguised with a fraudulent gift letter. The property value is inflated (faulty appraisal) to increase the sales value to make up for no down payment and to generate cash proceeds in fraud for profit.

Marriage Fraud can take several forms and is the act of entering a marriage for personal gain rather than a genuine desire to enter into a sincere marital relationship. Marriage Fraud is usually associated with obtaining immigration benefits. In the United States, marriage fraud for immigration purposes is punishable under INA §204(c)(1) and the Immigration Marriage Fraud Amendments of 1986. Possible criminal penalties include $250,000 and 5 years in prison as well as deportation and a permanent bar against receiving future immigration status. Marriage Fraud can be either unilateral or bilateral Unity and Immigration Policy in the United States. In a unilateral marriage fraud, only one party is aware of the fraud and the fraud is against both the immigration service as well as the other party. The innocent party may file a lawsuit and/or annulment of the marriage. In a bilateral fraud, both parties are aware of it and both parties are subject to criminal penalties.

In academia and science, fraud can refer to academic fraud - the falsifying of research findings which is a form of scientific misconduct - and in common use intellectual fraud signifies falsification of a position taken or implied by an author or speaker, within a book, controversy or debate, or an idea deceptively presented to hide known logical weaknesses. Journalistic fraud implies a similar notion, the falsification of journalistic findings.

Fraud can be committed through many methods, including mail, wire, phone, and the internet (computer crime and internet fraud). The difficulty of checking identity and legitimacy online, the ease with which hackers can divert browsers to dishonest site and steal credit card details, the international dimensions of the web and ease with which users can hide their location, all contribute to making internet fraud the fastest growing area of fraud.

Acts which may constitute criminal fraud include:

• Marriage Fraud to obtain immigration benefits INA §204(c)(1),
• bait and switch
• confidence tricks such as the 419 fraud, Spanish Prisoner, and the shell game
• false advertising
• identity theft
• false billing
• psychic and occult charlatanism
• forgery of documents or signatures
• taking money which is under your control, but not yours (embezzlement)
• health fraud, selling of products of spurious use, such as quack medicines
• creation of false companies or "long firms"
• false insurance claims
• bankruptcy fraud, is a US federal crime that can lead to criminal prosecution under the charge of theft of the goods or services
• investment frauds, such as Ponzi schemes
• securities frauds such as pump and dump
• taking payment for goods sold online, by mail or phone, such as tickets, with no intention of delivering them.

Fraud, in addition to being a criminal act, is also a type of civil law violation known as a tort. A tort is a civil wrong for which the law provides a remedy. A civil fraud typically involves the act of intentionally making a false representation of a material fact, with the intent to deceive, which is reasonably relied upon by another person to that person's detriment. A "false representation" can take many forms, such as:

• A false statement of fact, known to be false at the time it was made;
• A statement of fact with no reasonable basis to make that statement;
• A promise of future performance made with an intent, at the time the promise was made, not to perform as promised;
• A statement of opinion based on a false statement of fact;
• A statement of opinion that the maker knows to be false; or
• An expression of opinion that is false, made by one claiming or implying to have special knowledge of the subject matter of the opinion. "Special knowledge" in this case means knowledge or information superior to that possessed by the other party, and to which the other party did not have equal access.

In the UK a report concluded that the total costs of fraud and dealing with fraud in the year 2005-2006 was at least 13.9 Billion GBP.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Servo...

Not being a lawyer, I can not provide a precise law in question. The above is from wikipedia... I think it would be obvious that a false registration for the purpose of voting constitutes fraud.

 hobiejoe wrote: 
Hobie, ACORN has been under investigation in several jurisdictions for some time.  One of the reasons is that they allegedly submitted registrations for several members of the Dallas Cowboys football (our version ) team to the Nevada Secretary of State.  Info here, much more available at Google. 

 musik_knut wrote: 
Please cite the precise statute(s) that you are referring to.

 hobiejoe wrote: 

Who said I'm not calm? Oh yea, you made that assessment from your keyboard...
Seems any number of folks offer a defense of ACORN. Perhaps the salient point being missed is the number of ACORN officials convicted of fraud in the area of voter registration. Or the 13 States currently investigating ACORN in this area? Could it be, as some have suggested/intimated/stated that GOP mischief makers, clever devils for sure, are stirring the pot and ACORN is catching the grief? Sorry, but I would have a hard time thinking poor ACORN is an innocent this election cycle as well as cycles past and for sure, the innocent victim in 13 States. Google ACORN and sure enough, a goodly number of links, past and present, point to ACORN and voter fraud. Again, an innocent victim as ACORN is pleading?
By the way, no matter the stripe or persuasion of anyone or any entity attempting voter fraud, I have nothing but unbridled disdain for them and would deem no punishment as being too harsh.
Congratulations on your BIG 4-0...

 musik_knut wrote: 

 Calm down won't you - you're going to blow a gasket otherwise.
 
I reckon you'll find that ACORN is at, as you say, the epicentre of fraudulent claims for the simple reason that they appear to be the people who who bring them to the Authorities' attention. Why on earth would they do otherwise? Why spend all that time and effort to encourage people to vote (voting is still considered a good thing, isn't it?) and then ruin their credibility by allowing pillocks to make crass and palpably false applications. No, they have their work cut out enough encouraging people to engage in the democratic process as it is without undermining the spirit of democracy further.
 
I turned 40 yesterday (have I mentioned that already? ) and am therefore allowed to be even more cynical. So you have a bunch of GOP'ers attempt to register with crazy names etc. If, in the unlikely event, they get through, then thats "voter fraud", if they get picked up and reported to the relevant authorities by ACORN, then that's an "attempted ACORN voter fraud" news story. And we all know how the story arc pans out. Corrections and clarifications are well down the food chain.
 
On the other hand, I rather feel that this post is not going to make one iota of difference to your point of view.
 
Hey-ho.

 dionysius wrote: 

Attempting to commit fraud, is a violation of law. It matters greatly if ANY fraudulent votes are cast, be it one or one thousand. It matters EVEN MORE if there is an attempt to commit fraudulent voting because of the intent and what it means in a fair election.
Why is it that over the past few elections, ACORN is at the epicenter of fraudulent registrations? Why are some former ACORN officials languishing in Federal Prison cells? Because they were convicted of committing fraud in our voting processes.

I know some might not take this seriously...but we all should. Too much blood has been spilled by too many to have ANYONE or ANY ENTITY make a mockery of our RIGHT TO VOTE.
If fraudulent claims swamp the system, what of those who have registered by the rules and their registration is lost in the avalanche of claims? What do we say to them if they are denied their RIGHT TO VOTE because their registration was buried with fraudulent ones? In the States were the complaint of fraudulent registrations is common, the systems are swamped. Someone who has the RIGHT TO VOTE might be denied.

 samiyam wrote: 
  Like Hugh Grant?

To all the ACORN-haters and believers in voting-fraud-from-below: can you point to ANY documented cases of someone voting more than once, or someone not qualified to vote who casts a ballot, who had registered through this organization or others? Not registration: VOTING. If you can, document it or STFU.

Voting-fraud-from-above? Disenfranchisement of legit voters through partisan purging of voter rolls? Much more common, AND documented. Here's one famous example from Florida. And here. 2008 shows some similar alarming threats to voter rights. Qualified voters could show up at the polls, registration in hand, and find out that they're "ineligible" to vote!

I'm not even talking about the chilling question of electronic voting fraud. 

If an election is stolen, it won't be by the simple registration efforts of grassroots community organizers. It will be by partisan state officials and/or clever hackers.

 oldslabsides wrote: 
Many a young man with vegetarian girlfriends have been known to do the Mickey D's drive-thru for extra sustenance...

vegetarian fraud?

 samiyam wrote: 

The post above is a shining example of a well made post.  It's logical, presents a reasonable argument, without a single shred of bias, deceit or any other underhanded tactics.  And it cites an established, verifiable source.  Bravo!

And based on the reporting from other reputable news agencies that I have seen (organs that print and broadcast the news, but don't necessarily publish their stories on the Internet, so don't show up at the top of a Google search), the report is spot-on.

 exotraxx wrote: 
Franz Beckenbauer sucks

 Peace out, I know in your mind you think you are doing good.

Here are the facts. Acorn verifies the legitimacy of every registration its canvassers collect. If they can't authenticate the registration, or it's incomplete or questionable in other ways, they flag that form as problematic ("fraudulent", "incomplete", et cetera). They then hand in all registration forms, even the problematic ones, to elections officials, as they are required to do by law. In almost every case where you've heard about fraud by Acorn, it's because Acorn itself notified officials about the fraud that's been perpetrated on them by rogue canvassers. Most officials who run to the media screaming "Acorn is committing fraud" know all of the above but don't bother to share those facts with the media they've run to. None of this is about voter fraud. None of it. Where any fraud has occurred, it's voter registration fraud and has resulted in exactly zero fraudulent votes.

Source: Guardian Newspaper

 

 Lazy8 wrote: 
 Yeah, OK.

 bokey wrote:Dude, chill. You didn't kill any Indians or own any slaves. I got family that went up smokestacks, Exo didn't do that either. All we can blame each other for is what we do now, our own selves.

 bokey wrote: 

OK- Sorry EXO, but you just piss me off some times. I know we are all imperfect. I just have this thing about countries who shoot my family.
 MB-Fuck off, IMO you are OK, but still , just FO.

bokey wrote:

 manbirdexperiment wrote: 
  I have to admit, I do admire anyone that can out strange me. You have skillz.