WHY Are Republicans Accusing ACORN Of Voter Fraud?

The Republican noise machine is going absolutely full-force after ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), accusing them of committing vote fraud on a massive scale. You can't turn on the radio or TV without hearing that millions of illegal votes will be cast for Obama because of ACORN's massive vote fraud. If you Google "Acorn" and "rigging" you get over 50,000 hits.

The Republican National Committee website is headlining the effort. And they are issuing accusation press releases all day, every day, to drive this effort. They have a "fact sheet" listing numerous accusations.

Here's the thing: ACORN is registering voters and is REQUIRED BY LAW to submit voter reg forms as the voter fills them out. Even so, the total "fraudulent" registrations they are accused of submitting nationwide is very low, maybe a few thousand. This is across the entire country when they have registered more than 1.3 million new voters. And this is all about registration forms that are filled out wrong by the voter, not ACORN, or a voter submitting more than one registration. This is what all the noise is about.

This is the key thing to know: None of these faulty registrations are capable of resulting in a single fraudulent vote. The problem is ACORN workers turning in forms that were filled out wrong, in some cases by the workers themselves to make it look like they were working when they weren't. But vote fraud? The most common problems is duplication but if someone fills out 12 registrations, they're still only goign to vote once. It is up to county election officials, not ACORN to worry about election fraud. And on a call today with ACORN they pointed out that while there are bad registration forms submitted, there is not one case of a person commiting actual vote fraud as a result of ACORN's efforts. Not one, ever, anywhere.

So the question is, why? Why the huge hissy fit over ACORN?

Remember the Seeing the Forest Rule: When Republicans accuse, it is because it is what they are doing themselves.

Working on the Election Protection Wiki I am seeing more and more accusations of a massive nationwide effort to throw millions of voters off of the registration lists, and otherwise keep them from voting. One example accusation: states like Florida are purging voters whose names do not exactly match their Social Security or drivers license, so "Bob" on one and "Robert" on another disqualifies them from voting. Another, across the country the Republicans are accused of mailing faulty absentee voter applications to Democrats -- they have incorrect addresses for sending the application, or when they can send them in they are thrown out for various reasons to do with the forms. Another: across the country students are being told they can't vote. These are just a few examples -- you may have heard that some states are even throwing people off voter registration roles if their homes are foreclosed.

Could THIS be why there are so many accusations against ACORN? To provide cover for the REAL voting scam that is going on?

Among the accusations is that they have "employed convicts to register people." That sure SOUNDS bad, but so what? Also among the crimes they are accused of is submitting duplicate registrations for voters. Here is the thing to keep in mind, when a duplicate registration is submitted, the person is registered once and the duplicates are thrown out. Again, so what?

ACORN is an organization that helps poor and minority communities. One thing ACORN does is organize people to vote. They have submitted over 1.3 million new voter registrations this year. From their website,

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities.

This sounds exactly like something Repubicans would hate. A lot.

Among the hundreds and hundreds of stories, these today:

ACORN Investigations Provide Rallying Cry for Republicans

Is Acorn Stealing the Election?

Obama Hired ACORN For GOTV

It's time to shut down ACORN, work against voter fraud

GOP Renews Complaints Over Voter Registrations

ACORN's Crimes

RNC: CNN Exposes How ACORN Steals Votes & Ties to Obama

Jive Turkey Rides Again

Comments

[2cntswrth]

When Republicans feel they cannot win an election, then their tactic becomes to suppress voters. They know that a lot of poor blacks were registered by ACORN. These voters are more likely to vote for Obama. However, just as the article stated, fraudulent registrations of fictitious people however, could never really be used anyway for actual voting, since your registration must match the i.d. you present at the voting polls. So, it really doesn't mean much or anything at all. The big stink being raised by the Republicans is just a way of taking a shot at getting legitimate Obama voters suppressed and unable to vote. That's why they keep trying to erroneously tie ACORN to Obama to stir up scandal.

[anderinthemountains]

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/oct/09/ritter-scolds-coffman-over-voter-error/

Try looking at this article. Something stinks in Colorado. Gov. Ritter wrote a pretty strong letter to the republican Coffman for his false letters to voters. The republican county clerk of El Paso county also tried to disenfranchise student voters with a false letter containing threats. ACORN data gathering does result in a lot of false registration forms and they need to do something to change that so we do not get so much bad press at election time. But this rarely if ever results in voter fraud. What the republicans in power do is voter disenfranchisement and that is much worse; it IS criminal.

[Bluebonnetgirl]

I truly believe that these registrations could have been filled out by a Karl Rove operative. I would not any thing past them. They are that desperate.

Has this been investigated? Who turned in the registrations? It is only voter fraud if these registrations are used to try to vote.

[CindyV]

Here in Wisconsin ACORN is under investigation for submitting bogus voter registrations. It seems that ACORN workers are paid if they reach their quota of voter registrations. Not enough registrations = no pay. So to get paid, workers are filling out bogus registrations. While it hasn't resulted in any fraudulent vote at this time, it doesn't make the organization look good. And since Obama did work for ACORN, guilt by association is all the rethuglicans need.

[milo h minderbinder]

While some things may be overblown, there is a record of problems in ACORN's history.

I hope the facts come out. And I hope that it turns out that ACORN isn't doing anything wrong. But I have to admit that there are some things that look really fishy, particularly the stack of registrations in Indiana in which ALL of the first 2000 were bogus.

[LewDan]

ACORN is required by law to turn in all the forms they collect, even incomplete and fraudulent ones. After all we wouldn't want some private outfit like ACON deciding on their own which forms to accept and which to reject, right? That's the Board of Elections job. So ACORNS quality control verifies the forms and separates them by category: normal, incomplete, questionable/potentially fraudulent. The three categories are clearly identified and submitted to State authorities. If you start checking the "questionable" ones first it shouldn't surprise that all of them are "fraudulent." That's why ACORN said they were questionable.

If fraudulent apps are collected so collectors get paid, obviously its ACORN that's BEING defrauded, Not ACORN committing fraud. This is all about Republicans spinning disinformation to disenfranchise low income urban minority voters, demographics that traditionally vote overwhelmingly Democratic, and are ACORN's primary clients. Republicans have been doing this every election cycle for years now. Its not that ACORN is a problem, its that Republicans consistently make dozens of unfounded accusations every election cycle. The "Big Lie" theory in practice.

[Dave Johnson - Huffpost Blogger]

ACORN submitted them like that BECAUSE they looked suspicious. They separated out the suspicious-looking ones. So that's why they were clumped together.

ACORN is required by law to turn them over, but they have been flagging the ones the might have problems.

The Republicans are turning it around like this to make it look bad. You need to ask why there is all this fuss and claims that this is voter fraud that could affect the election, when it really isn't possible for this to lead to anyone actually voting more than once or anything like that.

The real question is why do Republicans have such a problem with registering poor and minority people to vote? I saw a complaint on Drudge Report that they're actually registering HOMELESS people. As if homeless people are somehow less entitled to vote?

[BuckeyeGal]

More likely cover for when the voting machines are hacked by the GOP.
www.blackboxvoting.org

[VideoHammer]

Thank you Dave for addressing this fake issue. I am feeling more and more distressed every day when the MSM just regurgitates RNC talking points. The failure of so called legitimate journalists to challenge the most outragious and ridiculous garbage coming from the Republicans is scary.
How many times does the public have to get fleeced by the GOP before they get busted for the lies?
I look at my country now and see the bile rising to the top, at the urging of a Presidential Candidate. How long before someone is killed, bombed or worse as a result of these shameless Republicans? It has happened before.
We are upon the razors edge, will we fall forward, working together, or backward, bombing churches, lynching, and spraying hate? I am no longer sure.

[Dave Johnson - Huffpost Blogger]

Let me note that this is my personal observation and not related to the non-partisan efforts of the Election Protection WIki.