A genuine threat - ACORN

[cobra de capell]

A genuine threat

ACORN targets a weakness in democracy

October 18, 2008

To end the many obstacles Southern states put up before African-American voters as late as the 1960s, Congress worked for decades to make voting much easier. These efforts had a hugely positive effect – until the 1993 “motor voter” law. This measure and some related laws made registration so easy – and so difficult to verify because of a lack of resources and time – that they created nothing less than a structural weakness in American democracy.

This election year, we're seeing a determined, well-funded effort to exploit this weakness, led by ACORN – the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

Using corporate, partisan and taxpayer grants, the nonprofit group has spent $35 million this year to register 1.3 million people in 21 states. But it's highly likely that hundreds of thousands of these registrations are bogus. That's because ACORN relies on canvassers who appear to be paid based on how many signatures they get – an invitation to fraud – and because ACORN as an institution appears to collectively think such fraud is tolerable in the name of “social justice.”

ACORN's voter drive in San Diego County – detailed in yesterday's Union-Tribune – is troubling. Nearly 2,000 of the 26,000 forms it turned in were invalid, much higher than the norm. But compared with what ACORN did elsewhere, its San Diego effort was a model of probity. In Ohio, for example, officials say ACORN gets the primary blame in the registration of 200,000 new voters whose forms appear to be bogus.

Unfortunately, many Democrats depict concern over ACORN as Republican hysteria. They are right that voter fraud has been a tiny problem in recent years. But they ignore a key point: the stunning scale of bogus registrations this time around.

Even if a tiny fraction of these fake voters actually fill out a ballot, they have the potential to tip the presidential vote in battleground states – such as Ohio. Or Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina or Wisconsin – all swing states where ACORN has been active.

If we have another very close race, the subsequent court fight could make Florida 2000 seem like a polite tiff.

So, please, spare us the “social justice” rhetoric. What ACORN has done isn't noble. It's reprehensible. We hope that the FBI's investigation into the group is vigorous and thorough.
_____

Consider watching this video - connects Ayers as the founder of ACORN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH7kT4xwddg

Obama is a front man.

That’s all he’s ever been — a pompous spokeperson for shadowy interests.

His problem is that he doesn’t know that he is a mere stooge.

[NeoConMan]

Um, I have little to add....

Good job!!!

[wtm442]

Did you notice the ACORN rep mention that all of the fuss is really nothing but "voter registration fraud" and is a very small and limited problem. It would only be "voter fraud" if Mickey Mouse turned up and actually voted.

In another breaking story, there was a recent poll in the 12 states where ACORN is being investigated and the results of the poll indicate that Obama is way ahead:

Obama 88%
McCain 48%

[cobra de capell]

I'm thinking that the interest thing is that, the way I understand it at this point, Acorn is basically contracted by Project Vote - a non-profit, to register new voters on a non-partisan basis - non-partisan is required to maintain a non-profit status and to use charity funds in the effort. Therefore, if ACORN has registered 1.2 million new voters, how many are democrat, republican or independent and why don't we alreayd know (from the MSM)? It seems to me that the resulting percentage would reveal the truth of the matter, aside from registering the same person over and over again - I doubt that Republicans are registering over and over again through ACORN if at all.

[cobra bill]

Perhaps the ACORN 'Voter Fraud' is Hiding with the WMD?...
I've written both here and at the UK's Guardian to point out that not a single case of ACORN "voter fraud" has been shown anywhere despite the Republican's phony outrageous and MSM's knee-jerk reporting of it.

That changed on Friday (for about a minute) when the GOP and their always-reliable and incurious media echo chamber began trumpeting "undeniable proof that a significant number of fraudulent votes were cast in Democrat primary races for the New Mexico legislature as a result of ACORN’s voter registration fraud."

Knock us over with a feather, but those charges have now fallen apart as well...


I'd asked, in my coverage, for evidence --- any evidence --- from anybody to support the claim that the GOP --- and even John McCain, dishonorably enough --- have been hanging their collective, desperate hats on in regard to their allegegations of ACORN "voter fraud." Nobody had been able to offer a single link containing any evidence, until last Friday, when the GOP charged actual voter fraud (as opposed to the voter registration fraud by ACORN canvassers against the community group, and as reported to officials by them) in the Democratic primary, in New Mexico.

But now, as it turns out, even those claims of illegal votes in NM are apparently false as well, though the RNC seems to be having trouble admitting it, even in the press conference they'd called to tout the phony claims yesterday, before being undermined by the truth accidentally leaking out first. Zachary Roth at TPMMuck has the shameful story...

Further, as it turns out, the guy behind the false GOP charges in NM, Pat Rogers, is the same anti-democracy hoaxster from the phony GOP/White House-run "voter fraud" propaganda front-group that we outed here years ago, the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR). He was also behind the same unsubstantiated 2004 GOP allegations of "voter fraud" in NM just before that election as well. The '04 effort led to the White House firing of NM's Republican U.S. Attorney David Iglesias and eight others.

The U.S. Attorney Purge is currently under investigation by a DoJ-appointed Special Prosecutor after a report from the DoJ's Office of the Inspector General found politicization in the firing process reaching as high as the White House. Last Friday, the Obama campaign asked the DoJ to expand the probe by the Special Prosecutor to include the recent '06 effort, charging that it mirrors, almost exactly, what the GOP had done in 2004.

No doubt, the dead-end rightwing losers like this guy and this guy and this gal and this gal will somehow forget to retract and/or apologize for their stories declaring that "undeniable proof that a significant number of fraudulent voters [sic] were cast in Democrat primary races for the New Mexico legislature as a result of ACORN’s voter registration fraud."

Some suckers will believe anything, I guess. Perhaps that "undeniable" ACORN "voter fraud" is hiding with the WMD.

Our Special Coverage page on the GOP's ACORN "Voter Fraud" Hoax is here...

The BRAD BLOG covers your electoral system, fiercely and independently, like no other media outlet in the nation. Please support our work with a donation to help us keep going. If you like, we'll send you some great election integrity documentary films in return. Details on that right here...

[wtm442]

The really sad part about ACORN is its being funded by the US Gov't using our tax money.



But since the FBI is investigating voter registration fraud regarding ACORN in "only" 15 states, it MUST be a right-wing conspiracy because George Bush is President.

[cobra bill]

No, it's a GOP conspiracy! Bush is and always has been a puppet That's why the GOP loves to put stupid people in office!

[wtm442]

Originally Posted by cobra bill

No, it's a GOP conspiracy! Bush is and always has been a puppet That's why the GOP loves to put stupid people in office!

Thank you for proving its a right-wing conspiracy. Case closed. Someone please call the FBI and tell them "Never Mind".

[cobra bill]

Your welcome!