Seattle, Washington FBI Bureau File - Paperless Archives

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Three members of Mitchell's voter-registration crew also served jail time, and a fourth person, a woman who
was pregnant at the time, was sentenced to 96 days of electronic home monitoring, said Ian Goodhew, deputy
chief of staff for King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg. An arrest warrant was issued for canvasser Kendra
Thill, of Tacoma, who failed to show up in court and has since disappeared.
Other Local Election Stories I Local ACORN cleans up act after '06 scandal I Seattle Time... Page 3 of 3
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Charges against an ACORN employee were dismissed because prosecutors couldn't prove she knew the
voter-registration cards she submitted to King County Elections were frauds.
While the investigation showed that Washington ACORN was the victim of canvassers who wanted pay
without doing the work, it was clear ACORN's lax supervisfon and quality-control measures allowed the fraud,
Goodhew said.
Local ACORN officials signed a settlement agreement that stipulates quality-control measures and lays out
how the organization will collect and submit its voter-registration forms. The agreement was also signed by
Reed, the secretary of state, which makes it applicable in all Washington counties.
County and state officials were so quick to rein in ACORN because of the number of illegal votes that had
been cast two years earlier during Washington's gubernatorial election, Ammons said. After the close race
between now-Gov. Christine Gregoire and her Republican challenger Dino Rossi in 2'004, it was found that
several people who cast ballots - including felons and voters who used the names of dead people -
shouldn't have been allowed to vote.
Though ACORN had nothing to do with those illegal votes, state and county officials were already "radicalized
because of our experiences in '04," Ammons said.,}hat translated into a "new commitment for a clean
process" and as a result, he said, "we're paying way more attention to elections from start to finish."
Jones, the Washington ACORN president, said he welcomes the scrutiny. ACORN "cleaned house," he said,
noting that none of the employees who worked for Washington ACORN in 2006 are still working for the local
chapter.
Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com
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