Seattle, Washington FBI Bureau File - Paperless Archives

In 2004 ACORN signed a Joint Effort Agreement with Project Vote to conduct
voter registration drives in cities and states where Project Vote detennined there
was a large enough popUlation of unregistered minority, generally African
American, persons who were eligible to vote. The agreement stated that ACORN
would receive city and state goals for cards collected, which was based primarily
on the analysis of how many unregistered minority persons were in the
jurisdiction.
The Joint Agreement does not set forth specific payment tenns because the cost to
ACORN would vary depending on the demographic and characteristic~ of the
jurisdiction. For example, ACORN anticipated that in some jurisdictions
nationally it could obtain funding for voter registration from sources other than
Proj ect Vote. Therefore, PV would have to cover less of the expenses for that
drive. As a result it was not possible and therefore there was no effort made to set
a fixed price to be paid for each application collected. The bottom line, however,
was that ACORN and Project Vote understood that Project Vote would cover the
overhead costs associated with the voter registration drives.
As part of the effort, Project Vote had to make a detennination about how best to
budget for these various voter registration programs. It was ultimately decided
that the best way to develop a projected budget was to evaluate the estimated cost
per card on a national basis. illotherwords, as part of its budgeting process, PV
estimated what the average cost per card might be nationally in order to assess
whether or not the anticipated voter registration programs could be cost effective.
Generally speaking, PV estimated the various expenses associated with collecting
registration applications on a national level. PV then calculated the number of
applications it believed necessary to be collected on a national level in order to
make the registration effort cost effective nationally. Based upon these
calculations, PV developed an aggregate national budget based upon an estimated
cost per application of$6.25. Based upon this budgeting model, Project Vote
asked for and received collection numbers from the local offices in order to
detennine the effectiveness of the local registration effort. Thus, it was never
intended that PV would pay a fixed price for each application collected.
With regard to the effort undertaken in Washington State, PV detennined to
reimburse ACORN for all actual costs incurred. This was done in order to insure
that the actual costs incurred by ACORN in Washington State were reimbursed
and not just the estimated costs.
The plan was implemented with this in mind. ill Washington, ACORN began to
collect cards in the middle of July. It appears to have covered its own costs
through the middle of August when it submitted an invoice for reimbursements on
August 12. By this time approximately 687 applications had been collected and
ACORN appeared to be ahead of the estimated projected budget ofS6.25 per
application. Based upon the fact that ACORN appeared to be within budget, it