Vote for the Demacrat or your welfrare will be taken away
Welfare voter push has GOP crying foul - BostonHerald.com
Welfare voter push has GOP crying foul
The state has mailed out voter registration letters to nearly 500,000 welfare recipients, in a push sparked by a group led by former ACORN bigwigs that critics say is a naked bid to boost Democrats at the polls in November.
The letters, mailed last month by the states Department of Transitional Assistance, went out as Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren have been locked in a neck-and-neck race.
The welfare systems get-out-the-vote push came in response to a suit brought by New England United for Justice (NEU4J), which is led by three former leaders of the controversial Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now. ACORN was disbanded in 2010 amid a voter fraud scandal
The suit was filed after a 35-year-old Lowell woman recertified her benefits at a Lowell welfare office last June and was not offered the opportunity to register to vote at any time during her visit; nor was she offered a voter registration application, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court.
NEU4J, along with the NAACP New England Area Conference, reached an agreement with the state on July 5 just two months after the suit was filed.
The deal requires state officials to contact the 477,944 welfare recipients who were on the books between June 1, 2011 and May 31, 2012. The mailings will cost the state $275,844.
The state must also run public service announcements on TV and radio stations from mid-July through mid-October publicizing the agencys registration push. And welfare office waiting rooms, which will soon be equipped with TVs, must make announcements explaining how to register to vote
Welfare voter push has GOP crying foul - BostonHerald.com