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The ACORN Controversy: A Tough Nut to Crack
For years, conservatives have grumbled about voter registration efforts aimed at low-income citizens, particularly those mounted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), claiming these campaigns are rampant with fraud and corruption that benefits Democrats. On Tuesday, this low-grade battle became a headline-making clash, as the McCain-Palin campaign blasted ACORN and the Obama-Biden campaign and ACORN responded in kind.
At a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, the McCain campaign put the chairmen of its "Honest and Open Election Committee," former Republican Senators John Danforth and Warren Rudman, front and center before the national media. The pair asserted that the election is in danger of being compromised, accusing ACORN of submitting thousands of phony voter registrations nationwide. They noted that they had sent a letter to the Obama campaign, Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean, and top state election officials proposing the creation of joint election observation teams. "Each campaign would list every precinct where either fears there is a potential for voter intimidation, fraud, or mistrust of the tabulation process on Election Day," the letter reads. "Each campaign would be responsible for recruiting a volunteer for each named precinct. The Republican and Democratic volunteers would work jointly as an observation team." (It is already routine for campaigns and parties to send election observers, often trained lawyers, to polling locations on Election Day. Representatives of local media outlets are commonly on hand as well.)
Danforth and Rudman's letter ends, "Let's talk." The Obama campaign isn't interested. It points out that the campaigns already dealt with this issue in an exchange of letters in September that generated little media attention. At that time, the McCain folks notified the Obama campaign of its joint observation teams idea and a week later the Obama campaign responded harshly: "This seems a starkly political maneuver to deflect attention from the reality of the suppression strategies pursued by national, state and Republican party committees." Nothing further occurred.
At the press conference, Danforth and Rudman suggested that ACORN was engaging in fraudulent voter registration on a massive scale — they mentioned 5,700 rejected ACORN registrations in Philadelphia, 1,400 more in New Mexico, reports of individuals registering to vote dozens of times, and so on. Senator Rudman said that he does not know what ACORN, which works with low-income communities and is a known sympathizer with liberal causes, hopes to accomplish, but that their actions call the integrity of the election into question. They repeated the charges on the cable news networks after the press conference.
The Senators didn't quite accuse Barack Obama of orchestrating massive voter fraud, but they came close. "Senator Obama has a special responsibility to rein in ACORN," said Danforth. The campaign pointed to Obama's connections to the group: Obama worked with ACORN briefly while a community organizer, did minor legal work for it after law school, and distributed funds to it while a board member of the Chicago-based Woods Fund. Further, the Obama campaign paid a subsidiary of ACORN over $800,000 to help with get-out-the-vote efforts (not voter registration) in the Democratic primary. ACORN takes pride in primarily registering low-income people, people of color, and young people. All three groups are major parts of Obama's coalition. Together, these facts are enough for many on the right to claim a nationwide conspiracy to steal the election. Practically every conservative group with a mailing list, from the Republican National Committee to the pro-life Family Research Council, has sent an email alerting its supporters to the grave threat ACORN supposedly represents.
Shortly after the McCain press conference ended, ACORN had an opportunity to defend itself. Renting a room just down the hall from the McCain campaign press conference, the group admitted to the press that in the process of registering 1.3 million new voters with the help of 13,000 mostly part-time canvassers, problems have occurred. Most commonly, its representatives said, workers seeking to make a quick buck have inflated their registration totals with duplicate or fictional registrations — thus the report that the Dallas Cowboys roster has allegedly been registered to vote in Nevada. But there is no institutionalized attempt to steal the election, they maintained. In fact, problematic registration forms are flagged by ACORN before they are sent to election officials, who frequently require all forms, legitimate or not, to be handed over to the state in which they were filed. In many of the cases where hundreds or thousands of problematic registration forms were found, ACORN was the first to identify the problem. And, the organization pointed out, those responsible for submitting phony registrations have been fired and in some cases, reported to authorities for possible criminal action.
ACORN officials also pointed out that fraudulent voter registrations do not equal fraudulent votes. Someone registered to vote 72 times can only cast one vote at the polls. (In response, the McCain campaign pointed to vulnerabilities in the absentee voting system, but offered few details.) On this front ACORN was echoed by Demos, a think tank, and Common Cause, a good government advocacy group. The heads of both groups cited studies indicating that very few people try to use a fake name to vote. Voter fraud at the polls, they said, is a minor problem compared to voter intimidation, intentional voter misinformation campaigns, and barriers to voting commonly set up in conservative states, such as Voter ID laws. The Obama campaign, in a conference call held hours after the dueling press conferences, reiterated these points. Campaign manager David Plouffe called the McCain campaign's focus on ACORN a "strategic and cynical ploy… to sow confusion in a deliberate attempt to decrease turnout."
ACORN's leadership has sent a letter to Senators Danforth and Rudman requesting a sit-down meeting to address the controversy. It mirrored the letter Danforth and Rudman sent to the Obama campaign. The McCain campaign has a political interest in declining the invitation. After all, why would it put to bed a controversy that has the ability to energize its base in the final weeks of the election?
Anytime there is a monetary reward for anything, there will be fraud, or attempted fraud. It is splitting hairs and simply not true to say that fraudulent registrants do not equal fraudulent votes. I think NM has an absentee ballot system where you can call or order one from your county clerk. How is this to be policed in open?
ACORN could fix this by making pay a steady salary with quarterly bonuses for quantity. This would give them a stop gap period to verify submitted registrations before paying for them. It would immediately become more difficult for a worker to be fraudulent.
Jimmy, are you saying that the tactics you describe would result in enough fraudulent votes to turn the tide of an election? Or are you just complaining about the usual, everyday voter fraud that happens in all elections, regardless of party affiliation?
Your note about how it is "simply not true that fraudulent registrants do not equal fraudulent votes" belies the facts. Registering and voting are two separate processes, each with their own protections. ACORN seems to be catching many of the fraudulent registrations. It's up to the districts to guard against fraudulent voting, as it always has been. The kind of fraud we see in Florida and Ohio has nothing to do with registrations and everything to do with intimidation and just plain old vote rigging.
Or do you really think that people posing as the Dallas Cowboys would have been allowed to vote in Nevada without needing to produce any valid ID documents?
James, the problem exists in the fact that ACORN is also *against* having to show state issued identification at the polls.
The democratic plank states: "We oppose laws that require identification in order to vote or register to vote."
There in lies the problem.
Against this, against that, whatever. There still isn't voter fraud here. The voter registration issues noted are experienced by every voter registration group. Should ACORN be required to follow special rules?
The problem starts with paying for registrations. Even though I realize ACORN isn't paying by the registration anymore, having quotas or bonuses is just as prone to fraud. I realize ACORN is the party being defrauded and I doubt even one ineligible person is voting. Nonetheless, the sheer difficulty of explaining this when the initial impression is bound to be bad shows what a stupid move this was on ACORN's part. This has blown up on them before, and frankly, they were idiots to not know better. They could have accomplished the same registrations with volunteers, or even if they got fewer, it would be worth it to avoid this controversy.
I guarantee that no matter what the facts, many people won't listen, and an Obama win will be under a cloud, especially if close. ACORN gave conservatives a gift. I know they do good work with other issues in low-income areas, but I find myself still wishing they would go away.
Like i have said many times before, this election will be CLOSE and will end up in the Supreme Court once again..!!!
This time the Republican Party will be objecting to the REAL proven fraud of obama....!!!
Dang, this will be so much fun, seeing obama go down because of the greed and fraud of acorn...!!!
See people, it is the "Company you keep..!!!"
BIll
Can I just add, in response to the calls for IDs at polls, that voters already have to show ID when they register. If they don't register in person at an election office, then their names are flagged in the registration rolls, and they have to show ID the first time they vote after registering. Those who register at the polls in the states that allow it have to show ID to the election judges who register them. Requiring photo IDs is just a suppression technique. It sure stopped those 90-year old nuns in Indiana from stealing an election!
Seriously, between photo ID requirements, the ACORN controversy, and the insistence by Lake County election officials on putting all early voting facilities in white areas (this county includes Gary), Indiana is most likely to be this year's Florida.
Brett, the clarion call is against Obama for associating (and whatnot) with ACORN because, so the call goes, they are engaged in voter fraud that will lead to Obama's victory in November. The facts are that ACORN has nothing to do with voter fraud and their opinions regarding security measures taken at the polls are irrelevant.
But since it's in play, their argument re: IDs has more to do with economic disparity than with fraud, consistent with their mission. What is happening is that the concept of requiring documentation at the polls demands that verifiable documentation exists that could actually restrict votes to one per citizen. A better alternative to this, discussed many times but not enacted, is to use biometric identification in place of documents. Take the recently-concluded Brazilian voting process, for example. Since 1996, all of their electronic voting machines (by Diebold, same as here) use open source software, vetted and signed off on by all parties, and which are networked both together and with a central commission, and all of which duplicate the votes on paper rolls as they happen, simply use a thumbprint identification device attached to the machine to restrict voters to one vote per election. You can't go to any other machine to vote, because your print has already been used.
How simple is that? It has the added benefit of eliminating the need to register at all. You show up, you vote once, you're done.
You don't need to shell out money for a driver's license or for any other documents, either, which means that there is no financial barrier to exercising the right to vote, unlike in the U.S.A., where you must pay for some form of identifying document in order to vote ... a document that can easily be manipulated to execute fraud. And please remember that, to most of us, $10 (or whatever it costs to get ID documents) is no big thing, but for many others that is a few days' worth of food for their family.
Anyway, the canard presented by what ACORN wants or doesn't want has very little to do with whether or not vote fraud is being perpetuated, and everything to do with the GOPs attempts to paint the Obama campaign as being somewhat less than honorable. Take that for what it's worth.
What? Poor people voting in record numbers? It's got to be some kind of a conspiracy! Not like voter ID laws which are perfectly acceptable.
Meanwhile, back in the church, pastors are busy preaching to their congregations about who they should vote for while their churches enjoy property tax exemption.
You say the Republicans are concerned because, "The election is in danger of being compromised?" Oh man that's rich! Where were the Republicans in 2000 and again in 2004? I don't recall any Republican concern about those 'elections.'
That Danforth and Rudman would even utter the word integrity is surprising. I wonder if they actually managed to say it with a straight face?
What a serendipitous event that I should happen to rewatch The Sting last night...
"What was I supposed to do, accuse him of cheating better than me?"
James, Considering Gore beat Bush in NM in 2000 by less than 500 votes. I think it was less than 400. Then Bush took NM by only 59?? votes over Kerry in '04. I believe it is naive thinking to separate voter registrations from actual votes, especially when tallies are so close. It puts the rejected registrations in question and causes undue social unrest, period. There is an unwritten method to this madness.
No one believe this acorn nonsense. More last second tricks.
Here's a thought:
Inasmuchas:
Democrats win if tons vote
Republicans win if nobody votes
Why not infiltrate ACORN with GOP goons, filling out thousands of bogus registrations leading to...well..this debate.
In the words of my fav phallusopher, Homer:
"DUH"
ACORN is a non-issue. This election will be a blowout. ACORN get the vote out by volunteers only? Or underachieve and not try so hard? Great idea! And lobbyists can work for free, or only bribe politicians halfheartedly. Instead of campaign contributions, donors can donate their time (now that's a real expression of free speech). TV and radio can also give air time away freely. Funny how when the colored and poor mobilize the bigoted get all uppity.
I cant believe this ACORN thing even has to happen. Its like America2014 should have happened. Maybe the would people see how far we have to go. How much we must wake up. Things are bad, and we all need to try and do a part. If not this book will be our reality. Im glad Im reading it now.... at least check out its altered bill of rights... its like what reality may become if we dont all wake up.... www.america2014.com
I have no problem with Acorn - they have a miniscule amount of fraud, so what? I DO have a problem with a news outlet - FOX - propagating lies and innuendo. This cannot be allowed under 'free speech'. How can it be 'free' when I have to pay for it? Please someone help me out here!
One of the congressional candidates in my district submitted a petition for a new political party that contained around 6000 voter signatures. Half of these were disqualified. I suppose that candidate is guilty of massive fraud and should be personally condemned as well as go down to defeat for his moral shortcomings. The fact is, it's the nature of the beast for there to be inaccuracies in any registration process. This is in fact sorted out when election officials review the submissions.
Fraudulent registrations do NOT equal fraudulent votes.
A non-existent voter cannot show up to the polls and fill out a ballot.
DUH.
This "controversy" is something that proves that the conservatives have nothing to talk about to help the American people. All they are interested in is suppressing the vote so they can steal the election. They want electronic voting machines with software that is written and maintained by companies that have a vested interest in electing Republicans.
That's the truth about the "voting registration" controversy.
If they think they can make this stick, well they should just GO FOR IT. Obama has a plausible, simple answer (hasn't been involved with ACORN for 13 years). John McCain was a keynote speaker at an ACORN event 2 years ago.
BRING IT ON, MCPALIN.
F*kkin' idiots is what they are. They can't even do character assassination properly.
-Wexler
Thanks MJ for pointing out Obama's personal ties with ACORN as well...oh wait you didn't. Both candidates are the same person. What difference does it make? Whoever wins we all lose.
What personal ties, Chris?
Please educate us.
One citizen. One vote.
Not two votes. Not NO votes. ONE vote.
We all know bogus registrations don't turn into votes. You need a valid identification to cast a vote. All this noise about ACORN is just that - a distraction to try to divert attention to the real crime here, which is the suppression of the fundamental right vote.
Thousands of bogus forms from ACORN are an annoyance, but won't give a single person more than one vote.
Hundreds of thousands of people being denied their one vote is the suppression of the most fundamental right in our democracy. Over 600,000 American citizens in Ohio face the illegitimate loss of their voting rights. Tallied across the country, Republican anti-democracy and intimidation tactics place the voting right of over a million Americans at risk.
There is no "equivalence" here. One aspect is 99.999% noise, and the other is 100% attack on American's most basic civil right.
Responsible media need to be talking about the assault on democracy launched by the Republican party - there is no shortage of information available about the various caging tactics being taken by Republican officials across the country.
its called gutless McCain do you want him to face a terrorist good luck
Yeah, the Democrats are going to "steal" the election by getting people to "vote". That's despicable.
ACORN pays people by the hour, not for each registration. These bogus registrations are being caught because ACORN is flagging them to be caught. Micky Mouse will not be voting, nor will the Dallas Cowboys be voting in Nevada.
This is proof that the system is working and that voters have to properly register in order to vote.
In order to vote by absentee ballot in Ohio, you need a valid Id with your address on it.
GIVING 2 TO 1 ON OBAMA. ANY TAKERS?
No matter how many times you register, you can only vote once! As far as fraudulent registration goes-Make all applicants go to their respective registration places and don't accept mail in or large numbers of applications from any source! One at a time works everytime!
Republicans ARE using their
concern and the media to confuse and cause doubt as a tactic showing they are playing to those without time/ability to do proper checking into ACORN matter.
JUST ANOTHER SMOKE SCREEN TO
COVER THEIR INFERIOR GRASP OF SERIOUSNESS their positions:
THEY ARE ALIGNED WITH BIG BUSINESS AND BIG POWER, AGAINST SMALLER, STRUGGLING INDIVIDUALS. McCAIN TRYING TO MANIPULATE THOSE VULNERABLE.
OBAMA and ACORN TRYING TO GIVE THOSE PEOPLE HOPE AND A VOICE THEY DON'T NOW HAVE!
Bill nigh,the election will not be close as you say.Obama
will win with alot more votes
Let's say milions,not because Obama is better but because
John McCain is very bad candidate to be president !
Here's what I believe will happen,The GOP & Carl Rove will use the old and the last trick which to ask Dick Cheney to resign 4 medical reason and George W.Bush will ask John McCain to replaces him to give him a head start WHY ? because they know the American people don't like to change a horse during the race & God only knows what else could happen ? ! ???
Maybe the time has come to bring the PURPLE FINGER from Iraq & Afghanistan to the UNITED STATES OF Zimbabwe !
I still think and I am very sure mc cain will be next president... not that I care really.
Jimmy, did you notice: "On this front ACORN was echoed by Demos, a think tank, and Common Cause, a good government advocacy group. The heads of both groups cited studies indicating that very few people try to use a fake name to vote." So there are apparently some hundreds, maybe thousands, of fraudulent voter registration applications but only "very few" attempts to actually vote fraudulently. Your belief that fraudulent registrants equal fraudulent voters doesn't hold up in the real world.
Why is ACORN getting so much press, while we are hearing not one word about the hundreds of thousands of voters purged from the registration lists? And why are we not screaming at the top of our lungs about the hackable voting machines? Why is ACORN the ONLY election issue in the press?!?!?!
How many of the Dallas Cowboys are going to vote for Obama? My guess is about 60%, just like the rest of the country. Whether they vote in Nevada, Texas or both states, the outcome will be the same. Obama will clobber McCain, not because of any voter fraud but because the citizens have discovered over time that Obama knows what he's doing and McCain is running around like chicken little. It might have been close were it not for the economic mess. Sarah Palin will bring out some of the nut jobs who might have otherwise stayed home, but she and McCain have driven many more intelligent undecided voters to Obama. Let's get it over with.
"Senator Obama has a special responsibility to reign in ACORN," said Danforth.
A little bit of horse sense would tell you that you meant "rein in."
Ha. Right you are, James. HT.
SWIFTBOAT of 2008 is what this is. All it takes is a Republican with a copier, a blank Acorn form, sleeve of paper, pencil stub, and an activist with a phone book. BINGO!- a mocked-up voter fraud to get noisy about. The Swiftboat sails again! Useyer heads Democrats, Rove is only semi-retired and still with us. We've been waiting for it- here it comes!
Shoulda said "Thar She Blows!"
Tell me again how voter fraud is skewing the elections?
According to Lori Minnite, a professor of political science at Barnard College, who has spent the last eight years studying the role of fraud in U.S. elections ... From 2002 to 2005 only one person was found guilty of registration fraud. Twenty people were found guilty of voting while ineligible and five people were found guilty of voting more than once. That's 26 criminal voters -- voters who vote twice, impersonate other people, vote without being a resident -- the voters that Republicans warn about.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/15/voter_suppression/
The simple fact is that "elections are not decided by voter registrations", they are decided by votes, when authentic registered voters show up at their polling station with valid ID and place a single vote.
Also remember, Jimmy, that there were over 60,000 uncounted Florida votes in the 2000 Presidential election that the Republican Secretary of State, and GWB's Florida Campaign Manager, Kathleen Harris prevented from entering the rolls because she forced a stop to the recount after her man Bush gained that exceedingly slim margin of "victory", sending the decision over to the Supreme Court for its highly unusual ruling that gave Bush the office.
lawyers have a saying... when the facts are against you argue the law; when the law is against you argue the facts; when both are against you pound on the table.... someone in the McCain campaign must have gone to lawschool...
I hate to make a point for the other side but, here it goes. The article states workers can "make a quick buck" by handing in fake or duplicate registrations. If Acorn would trust their workers and pay them what they deserve without having to possibly make quotas or work piece meal this problem never would have happened. Supervisors should be humane, treat employees with respect, do the hard work of instruction and example without inhumane quotas and piece meal work. Jim Foster
We have election problems since the election of 2000 !
Did our government try to solve the problems ? Noooo !
We faced the same problems once again at 2004,and now
At 2008 election,we'll have the to use the same voting machines of 2004 election !
CAN ANYBODY EXPLAIN TO ME,why
our officials did not try to come up with a new voting machine that can guarantee my
vote will go to my candidate!
If you go to the grocery store
and spend $1.00, you'll get a
receipt with complete info
about your chopping.
Joseph Stalin,who was never elected by his people once said : "PEOPLE THAT VOTE DECIDE NOTHING,PEOPLE WHO COUNT THE VOTES DECIDE EVERYTHING"
It's very true ,FLORIDA 2000.
Workers should be compensated humanely not paid piece meal or have quotas to meet. Supervisors should do the hard work of instruction and example. Why would anyone turn in a registration for Mickey mouse or the Dallas cheerleaders. Come on people do your job and screen those forms. JF
Are these folk crazy? They want to talk about 'stealing the election'? Do these Republicans want to talk about the last two (2) elections they stole? I think not. Do they wanna talk about how with the "electronics" they are going to try to steal this election as well?
The real voter fraud will happen with electronic voting. Electronic machines even with paper verifiers can be hacked. The collection computers can be hacked, the signal over phone lines and internet can be hacked. Credit card and ATM fraud can only be reduced to 2 to 3% without exorbitant and intrusive methods and they already spend millions. To preserve democracy we must stop electronic voting period.JF
About 15 years ago I participated in a voter registration drive here in Chicago. This was for Equality Illinois a non profit group.
We were all given a class in registration what documents are needed to allow registration. Some of the requirements were specific (gas/electric Bill etc) some of it was left up the person doing the registering. One of the documents I requested was a drivers license (That was what the state wanted). The process was time consuming for me and no reward other than an atta boy for highest number.
This was done entirely on the North side of Chicago. I know zippo about the south side. I suspect but cannot prove it that if a lot of rule bending was done ie no "proof" of residence was needed.
*IF* that was done it does sound like fraud was done. The group I did it for had a check before it went down town some minor items were caught. We made a good faith effort to only register valid people. I suppose you could submit bad registration cards but the election people down town did a great job of catching bad egistrations. If any did get by some of the issue was the down town. I do know that a verification email is sent out before the election and if there any returns then those are stuck by the board. Is not perfect and there could be fraud in some small way but nothing massive, IMO.
The problem with 53 separate presidential elections is just that, 53 elections.
We should all be voting nationally with one election agency with a direct vote for president.
Present technology makes it possible to vote using a voting card just like a credit card, only once used it is canceled for that election.
We purchase items by phone safely. A vote is a value and a value is a number which can be recorded by phone.
Clint Jones
Strange isn't it that the main stream media on tv is not talking about voter suppression in the battleground states. These are just a few of the articles about it.
Ohio County Joins Voting-Machine Suit
by: Steven Elbow, The Capital Times
Lose Your House, Lose Your Vote
by: Eartha Jane Melzer, The Michigan Messenger
GOP Working to Keep Poor African-Americans From Voting in Many States
by: Jonathan Alter, Newsweek
Ten Ways the GOP Is Now Stealing the Ohio Vote
by: Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, The Free Press
Nearly 600,000 Voters Subject to Possible Caging in Ohio
by: David Rosenfeld, Miller-McCune
How Will You and Your State Cast Ballots in November?
by: Kim Zetter, Wired
by: AmWisconsin GOP Trying to Disenfranchise Votersber Ellis, The Cincinnati Enquirer
Casting Doubt on a Voting Plan
by: Errol Louis, New York Daily News
Warning on Voting Machines Reveals Oversight Failure
by: Greg Gordon, McClatchy Newspapers
States Rush to Dump Touchscreen Voting Systems
by: Julian Sanchez, Ars Technica
Ohio Voting Machines Contained Programming Error That Dropped Votes
by: Mary Pat Flaherty, The Washington Post
Officials Say Flaws at Polls Will Remain in November
by: Ian Urbina, The New York Times
The one legal(?) way to intimidate voting with correct machines is in the supply of machines. A "Nation mag."study found out that in Ohio the number and placement of machines was the "problem". Too few machines in high count Democratic areas and an overload of machines in low count districts. If you don't have enough machines then not everybody has a chance to vote ????
Who are the people who turned in these large #'s of bad registrations? To what end? Who gains? What better way to discredit all registrations than to throw a bunch of bad ones in and then scream bloody murder about the whole organization and process.