1.3 Million Reasons for the GOP's Fraudulent "Dixie-Chicking" of ACORN

By the way, in case you're wondering, this is the real reason -- about 1.3 million of them, actually -- for the GOP's desperate ACORN "voter fraud" scam...

Any questions? If so, first see this and then this, and then read the following list of ACORN facts before getting back to me with any of your questions, as I'm happy to help straighten you -- or any of the clueless and lazy media folks who have fallen for the GOP's "voter fraud" fraud -- out, as needed.

The following fact list is from a recent press release from ACORN, pointing out their success in registering hundreds of thousands of low-income voters who few others care to go out and register, and the fact that in almost every instance where there have been concerns about registrations turned in by the group (by law, they must turn in all registration forms they collect, problematic ones or not) it has been ACORN themselves who have first notified officials about the potentially fraudulent or incomplete applications.

The following facts need to be read by everybody (apparently), even those who believe they are progressives, yet have fallen for the GOP's Dixie-Chicking of ACORN...

Fact: ACORN has implemented the most sophisticated quality-control system in the voter engagement field but in almost every state we are required to turn in ALL completed applications, even the ones we know to be problematic.

Fact: ACORN flags in writing incomplete, problem, or suspicious cards when we turn them in,. Unfortunately, some of these same officials then come back weeks or months later and accuse us of deliberately turning in phony cards. In many cases, we can actually prove that these are the same cards we called to their attention.

Fact: Our canvassers are paid by the hour, not by the card . ACORN has a zero-tolerance policy for deliberately falsifying registrations, and in the cases where our internal quality controls have identified this happening we have fired the workers involved and turned them in to election officials and law-enforcement.

Fact: No criminal charges related to voter registration have ever been brought against ACORN or partner organizations. Convictions against individual former ACORN workers have been accomplished with our full cooperation, using the evidence obtained through our quality control and verification processes - evidence which in most cases WE called to the attention of authorities

Fact: Most election officials have recognized ACORN's good work and praised our quality control systems. Even in the cities where election officials have complained about ACORN, the applications in question represent less than 1% of the thousands and thousands of registrations ACORN has collected.

Fact: Our accusers not only fail to provide any evidence, they fail to suggest a motive: there is virtually no chance anyone would be able to vote fraudulently, so there is no reason to deliberately submit phony registrations. ACORN is committed to ensuring that the greatest possible numbers of people are registered

ACORN will not be intimidated, we will not be provoked, and in this important moment in history we will not allow anyone to distract us from these vital efforts to empower our constituencies and our communities to speak for themselves.

Thank you, ACORN, for both the tireless work in support of democracy, and for not being intimidated by those who hate it, and who realize that if it exists, they cannot win elections.

Cross-posted at The BRAD BLOG...

Recently related...
10/7/08: 'Stunt' Raid at NV ACORN Office & the GOP ACORN Lie Revealed
10/8/08: RNC Issues Fox 'News' Transcript on ACORN 'Voter Fraud' as Press Release
10/9/08: GOP Election Official Claims ACORN 'Voter Fraud' in MO
10/9/08: GOP Sheriff Claims 'Voter Fraud' in Dem County in OH
10/12/08: IRONY: FL's 'Voting-Rigging' Congressman Cries 'Voter Fraud' on Fox

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Brad Friedman is an investigative journalist/blogger and the creator/publisher of The BRAD BLOG, which has been focusing for some years on the many issues involved in election integrity. He can currently be seen in a number of documentaries on the topic, now in release around the country, including David Earnhardt's Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections, and the just-released Murder, Spies & Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story, by documentarian Patty Sharaf.

Follow Brad Friedman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheBradBlog

Comments

[BobLablah]

Indiana threw out 5000 voter registrations submitted by ACORN because every single one of the first 2100 they checked were fraudulent. It's quite an accomplishment to be caught cheating on such a massive scale. Sounds like democracy of the Hugo Chavez variety to me.

[ReynardTFox]

FACT: We should really stop giving a crap about what Republicans and their misguided followers say.

[BarackMarley]

If ACORN was so bad. How come McCain attended an ACORN event 2 years ago???

McCain Attends ACORN Event
http://newsone.blackplanet.com/elections/mccain-attended-acorn-convention/

[Shieldmaiden]

The MSM isn't going to talk about this unless we force it to. The GOP will stop at NOTHING to win, even if it means preventing poor people from voting. Ugh.

[magen]

Why is the GOP AGAINST Americans being registered to vote in large numbers???????????

Kinda un-American and un-patriotic if you ask me.

Afraid of something??????

[taddles]

What I'd like to know is why the MSM isn't pointing out the glaring fact that no one is going to be able to go to a voting location and sign in as "pirtytreyr qweyteuyy" or "Donald Duck" anyway. This is a non-issue that the Repugs are desperate to force some false foothold on so they can try to remove more Dem voters from the roles under the guise of "voter fraud".

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything." - Anon

[mmerose]

This is set up as a win-win for the RNC. They manufacture an excuse for losing, if they lose, and the bogus excuse, itself, cements their constituency's paranoia and facilitates the politics of scapegoating and division.

Note that this depends on the Republicans' intended voters being ignorant and/or eschewing rational thought. So, who's proud to be a Republican, yuk? I was pleased to see you raise the issue of motive. The most elementary grasp of the nature of the offense being complained of makes nonsense out of the claim that there's some ACORN agenda behind it.

But let's get all the publicity possible out to the legitimate voters ACORN has registered, so that they can understand the campaign against their enfranchisement and stay motivated to vote!

[KevinFitzz]

Well, this article blows my other comment OUT OF THE WATER! Here In Sacramento I thought they were paid by the signature. Oops! Thanks for cluing me in. Great article, and I'll think twice about opening up my big mouth again. And thanks for all of your good work. Looking at the map, you've been busy.

[red-or-green]

Has anyone considered that the bogus registrations may have been "planted" by groups that wish to undermine the registration process undertaken by ACORN?

If someone really wanted these fraudulent registrations to go through, they would go to great lengths to make them above suspicion. In other words, using fast food restaurants and dead people, (in addition to obvious handwriting similarities), is so obvious. And it is relatively easy to manufacture several thousand of these registrations in a short period of time. By flooding the process with obviously bad applications, all that does is jam up the system for processing the authentic applications. That's the purpose, to constipate the system so that the real voters, in many cases low-income, simply don't get processed.

It's not that all these dead folks or sandwich joints will show up to vote - it is simply to bring the whole shebang to a halt. A wonderfully dirty trick, like, say bugging the DNC headquarters.

[sugarmoes]

of course they were planted. it's a classic rove-type trick.

[mmerose]

Yeah, I did think of this, but it doesn't pass Occam's Razor. The straightforward explanation of lazy and not-too-bright registration workers covers the facts.

[Sparty1]

I know that they're trying to find a reason to put out there if McCain loses. I know it's not right to sign people up multiple times, but these people are obviously paid hourly and don't really care who's on that sheet. My issue is who's actually going to show up on election day? It's not like the folks that are coming to vote won't have a driver's license and their voter registration card. So what's really going on? Faux Noise has this story running all day, but hardly nothing about the economy. I wonder why?

[LiberalDemIda]

Sparty1 ~ "My issue is who's actually going to show up on election day?"

Allow me to answer what's already been answered in Brad's Post.

Only those QUALIFIED by county election officials will be able to cast their votes. The county election officials are *the* deciders who are eligible to vote.

Even if Mickey Mouse would arrive in full Disney garb with an excellent looking State picture I.D., if they are not on the voter rolls, they cannot vote. Think of Florida and the purge of AA's in 2000 who *were* eligible to vote but who were not on the rolls.

It's that simple.

GObama/Biden '08/'12 - IF you believe and cherish our Democracy.

[Aleka4]

Ty.

This is what has been baffling me. I have not yet been able to figure out how the GOP thinks bad registration will alter the election in any way. People need to show ID etc to vote, do they not? Current address, all that stuff?

So how does the GOP propose that Mickey Mouse will vote?

[marytny]

Thank you for the explanation.
I'm hoping Maddow has you on

[Brad Friedman - Huffpost Blogger]

No call yet from Rachel. But I will be on Randi today (4:30p ET) and Stephanie on Wed (11:30am ET). Just for the record.

But in between and after, you are needed to spread the truth high and low! Thanking you in advance!

[SpoxLogic]

And thank you, Mr Friedman for writing this.

Now, if there was only some way to get this on the MSM newsccasts - epecially on Fox News.

[BBackSoon]

You just made me shoot coffee out my nose!!!

FIX show this story!!! That was a good one.