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Busted Ex-ACORN Employee Fighting NH Voter Registration Reform

New Hampshire politicians are pushing to reform the state's same-day voter registration

ACORN demonstrators / Getty Images
May 3, 2017

A former ACORN employee who illegally paid for voter registrations during the 2008 presidential election is now working for a group connected to liberal billionaire George Soros that is actively fighting against a voter fraud prevention bill in New Hampshire.

Amy Busefink, the deputy director at Project Vote, a Washington, D.C.-based voter mobilization organization that was closely affiliated with the now defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), is seeking to defeat attempts to reform New Hampshire's voter registration process.

Republicans in New Hampshire want to change the definition of a "domicile" for voter registration purposes. Current state law allows individuals in the state to register and vote on the same day while showing an out-of-state identification if they sign a document confirming that they are truthful about where they live.

Senate Bill 3, which was put forth by a number of Republican senators in the state, seeks to tackle the same-day registration issue. The bill would make same-day registrants present a document showing that they actually live or plan to live in New Hampshire for more than 30 days.

Accepted documents under the bill include real estate contracts, school enrollment forms, open-ended utility service agreements, a New Hampshire motor vehicle registration, driver's license, or official non-driver's picture identification card, among others. False statements and votes could lead to fines and jail time.

Donald Trump claimed people from Massachusetts were bused into New Hampshire to vote against Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte during the 2016 elections.

The office of New Hampshire's secretary of state mails letters to individuals who voted using out-of-state identification within 90 days of an election. Of the 6,000 individuals who used an out-of-state identification and signed the document that they were truthful about their residency, 458 came back undeliverable, NH1.com reported. Ayotte lost to Democrat Maggie Hassan by 743 votes.

Busefink recently sent an email on behalf of Project Vote lobbying against the bill by claiming it would make it more difficult for students or low-income individuals to register.

"Specifically, Senate Bill 3 establishes stringent eligibility criteria to vote in New Hampshire and harsh penalties for eligible voters who do not or cannot comply. In addition to living in New Hampshire, new voters would be required to prove that they intend to stay at their current address by showing documentation that is costly to some," the email states. "Voters who do not have or fail to provide domicile documentation on Election Day would be required to return to a government office shortly after the election or mail the documents. If voters do not provide documentation, they would be considered guilty of voter fraud and subject to a visit by law enforcement and fines up to $5,000."

Busefick has a history of illegalities with voter registration forms. Busefink accepted a plea deal in 2010 for an illegal effort to pay for voter registrations in Nevada during the 2008 presidential campaign stemming from as a regional deputy director for ACORN.

Busefink, who initially faced 13 charges, entered a plea for two gross misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for the registration of voters, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported at the time.

Busefink did not return requests for comment on her group's current fight against the proposed New Hampshire bill given her past actions.

"We simply cannot have an open-borders approach to voting—state or international boundaries. This is how the organized left acts when it's in the political wilderness," Logan Churchwell, spokesman for the Public Interest Legal Foundation, and Indiana-based group that litigates to protect election integrity, told the Washington Free Beacon.

"They ditch ideas and toy with weaknesses in our election system. The desperation must be palpable if they are willing to use a person that admitted to her part in an illegal voter registration scheme as their pitchwoman."

Published under: Voter Fraud