Attacks on ACORN Based Not on Facts, But on Fear of 1.3 Million Poor People Registering

The Republicans tried to make fun of Barack Obama as a community organizer at their national convention in Minnesota, which I guess just goes to show how little Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have to fear from right-wing "humor."

Now they've gone further: Now they're attacking ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), one of the strongest, hardest-working, most dedicated community organizations in both Chicago and in 40 states across the U.S.

Why are they after ACORN? Well, I'm sure they're going to come up with a lot of "reasons" in the coming days. But the real reason is obvious: Because ACORN, along with Project Vote, just announced that they had successfully registered 1.3 million poor people this year.

Get that? 1.3 million, including 148,000 in Pennsylvania, 152,000 in Florida, 217,000 in Michigan, and 238,000 in Ohio. No wonder the GOP is up in arms. They're scared of too many poor people preparing to vote this year.

In the last week, the right wing has tried to blame ACORN for the collapse of the globalized financial system--yeah, that's a viable argument. They got excited because they found a some possible fake registration forms in Florida, which predictably led to a bunch of whining from the party that stole an entire presidency from Al Gore by blocking vote counts, mischaracterizing voters as felons, refusing to recount entire counties, sending congressional staff down to riot and intimidate volunteer vote-counters, and topped it all off with the most partisan, badly-reasoned, illegitimate Supreme Court decision since Plessy v. Ferguson. A decision so illegitimate that the partisan majority, to their eternal discredit, themselves damned by writing into their own decision that it should never be used as a precedent for any other court ruling.

This week, the right-wing is hyperventilating because apparently Democratic election officials raided an ACORN office after they found the names of some Dallas Cowboy football players among the 80,000 new registration forms that ACORN helped to get done in Nevada.

Obviously it's not right for a fake "Tony Romo" to be registered in Las Vegas, so someone was probably playing a not-very-funny joke, or trying to pad their registration numbers to get paid a little more money rather than doing the hard work in the hot Nevada sun that helping voters to register requires, or maybe a provocateur was setting up ACORN for some bad press. But remember the basic point--it's not voter fraud unless someone shows up at the voting booth on election day and tries to pass himself off as "Tony Romo." And who would try to do that? No one is going to be that stupid.

The truth is, the main voter fraud efforts going on in my lifetime--and I was born the week of the Selma march in 1965--have been repeated conservative attempts, far too many of them successful, to demonize and suppress the vote of African-Americans and Latinos in election after election, a history for which former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman actually apologized a few years ago, while promising the GOP would no longer engage in such tactics.

So they stole an election from Gore, made the Department of Justice into an outfit for partisan hacks, allowed New Orleans to drown, lied us into a war against a country that did not threaten us, replaced science with bad ideology, indebted our grandchildren to China, and turned our banking system into a deregulated casino--but thank the Lord that "Tony Romo" will not be able to sneak in to vote in Nevada next month.

This time, there are already fake flyers mysteriously appearing on the streets of minority areas of Philadelphia, illegal voter purges in numerous states, "caging" tricks, threats of using home foreclosure lists to strike voters from the rolls, and "black box" electronic vote-counting systems under the control of private companies--and we haven't even gotten to election day!

Meanwhile, I say thank you, ACORN. Thank you, Project Vote, for taking our democracy seriously enough to try to include 1.3 million more poor people in a more perfect union.

Comments

[Sweetbay]

Lou Dobbs was on Wolf Blitzer's segment blaming Barack Obama's campaign & his association with ACORN for this voter fraud. You know how Lou has been doing this series called Democracy at Risk? Well, this just plays right into his scheme to demonize Obama every chance he gets. He's got a lot of followers who believe everything he says. Lou Dobbs is dangerous to our democracy & CNN continues to allow him to spew his false "facts" and give credibility to his shady guests. CNN needs to get a letter/e-mail blitz.

[TiaL27]

Thanks Mr. Jackson for telling the truth about ACORN. The GOP has a history of claiming Voter Fraud so they can steal elections, so when I heard about this allegation against ACORN it immediately raised a red flag and I started digging and found out that this was in fact a GOP PR stunt. Too bad the MSM didn't do a good job investigating this stuff as I did. No one seems to care about the truth anymore. SHAME ON THEM!

the free video at freeforall.tv explains actually how past elections were stolen, in order that people can recognize election stealing tactics immediately. And the voter fraud tactic is a classic one.

[changeishere08]

Thank you for exposing the truth Mr. Jackson. Keep telling the truth about ACORN!

[GV97]

I would not put it past the Republicans to have their supporters in the states in question..­.. gummy up the works at all offices of Acorn. It may be cynical but in view of their outlandish attacks on Sen.Obama
I look at this whole affair very skeptically.
Hopefully there is enough time before the Election to get this sorted out so that people
who registered honestly will have the opportunity to vote.
Everyone no matter their circumstan­ces...if they are American Citizens..­. should have a voice in this
important Election.

[changeishere08]

Thank you Mr. Jackson!! Insightvul. I also find it hard to swallow that ACORN would now participate in voter fraud. This is nothing more than a Republican smear swiftboat and people aren't easily fooled this time.

[Durango]

Which is why Federal Justice Department rules are supposed to keep prosecutors from filing charges right before an election.

Or at least that is what the rules were before Gonzalas/Rove became Attorney General.

[TrevorAlan]

If there really is some fraud being caused by people being paid for registrations trying to be paid more, ACORN should switch to unpaid volunteer help, even if it means few registrations. The Wingnuts are going to use the TINIEST improprieties to label the left as full of fraud, even as they perpetrate the worst abuses. We can't beat their mud game, we have to run a stronger AND cleaner game.

Also, its great we are signing that many new voters up, but what are we doing to stop the official caging and voter list purges?

[BillCarson]

The ACORN workers get paid by the hour, but they do have to try to meet certain "goals" of say 15 registrations in 5 hours.

ACORN should have realized that they would be under the microscope by the republicans. As you say, the republicans will be looking for any mistakes no matter how tiny (They did this in Ohio in 2004). ACORN should have had better quality control. Now they've give the republicans the wedge issue they needed for their massive voter purges. http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6490

To paraphrase Stalin, "Those who want to vote decide nothing, those who control the vote decide everything".

[Schaef]

Yeah, those tiny little mistakes of tens of thousands of phony registrations sure can be a pain.

[DavidMcK]

Obama will win this election. The tag team of McCain/Palin will fail.

OBAMA 2008

[kbunkboy]

This is a theory that my wife advanced, and I think that it is very possible that Karl Rove could be behind this. Karl Rove is no dummy!

[oncesung]

KARL ROVE TRICKS AFOOT. DON'T YOU THINK IT ODD THAT THE FAKE REGISTRATIONS WERE SO EASY TO SPOT??
DON'T YOU THINK REPUBLICANS SUBMIT THE FAKE REGISTRATIONS TO SET UP ACORN AND THE LEFT, TO PREPARE THEMSELVES TO STEAL THE ELECTION, TO CLAIM THAT DEMOCRATS ARE THE ONES MESSING WITH ELECTIONS, ETC.??
THIS WAS TOO OBVIOUS.
IT WAS A KARL ROVE "SELF-BUG" STUNT.

[changeishere08]

EXCELLENT!! They think the American public is stupid. I find it hard to believe that all of a sudden ACORN would partiicipate in "voter fraurd". It is appauling, but I'm glad that Rep. Jackson III is exposing the blatant Republican lies and dirty tricks.

NOT THIS TIME.

[Arleen1]

This is what I was thinking. This really needs to be investigated. It will be interesting to see if this theory is true.

[vegas9999]

Do you think the Acorn employees that went to jail a few years ago were in on the conspiracy?

[Snowball]

I have no doubt that it was Republican operatives who filed the false registrations with ACORN.

It's pretty obvious. No one who was determined to commit fraud at the polls would register under the names of the Dallas Cowboys. Not only would it be a futile deception, it's so obvious that one can only conclude that it was done with the intention of being detected.

[Schaef]

So it's your assertion that there are no other human beings on the planet named Bobby Carpenter? Just the one playing for the Cowboys?

What happens when "Bobby Carpenter" shows up to vote on Election Day and his phony registration disallows his vote? Then come the cries of "voter suppression" and "Republicans disenfranchise a guy who unluckily has the same name as a football player". There's absolutely no way to win here.

[wbgonne]

I think you are mistaken to dismiss this. Unlike the Ayers/Wright nonsense, the ACORN vote fraud issue may gain traction and, therefore, Obama should make a statement on this soon. First, to explain what is really going on (along the lines of this article); second, to affirm his commitment to the integrity of the electoral process, which will not only give him the moral high ground, but have the salutary side-benefit of allowing an aggressive Democratic response to the inevitable Republican shenanigans at the polling places. In fact, I would not be surprised to learn that the Republicans are promoting this story in part to gain license for dirty tactics comes election day: Hey, anything goes! Obama should deal with it now and take it off the table before the debate b/c it may be more difficult then. Take the high road and don't let McCain get back in the game.

[24hourrifle]

i know this is gonna sound wildly partisan,but i believe its true...dem­ocratsare simply more fundamentally decent people.tha­ts why youll never see republicans out registering poor people.of course poor people will never vote republican(except rural ones voting purely on cultural issues).
also theyve hijacked christianity,and turned it into something it is not.jesus helped the poor constantly.

[marxichusetts]

Nice to see someone finally speak-out in defense of ACORN.

[kbunkboy]

There is a strong smell of fraud here. ACORN has a history of problems. we do not need a Democratic Karl Rove!

[miatamama]

AMEN!

[mmm17]

Thanks for the column JJ, Jr. An important explanation of the ACORN issue in Indiana can be found at Progress Illinois : http://www.progressillinois.com/2008/10/10/vilifying-acorn-without-facts

Did everyone know that ACORN flagged many of the questionable votes themselves as being problematic, but *had* to submit them because by law you must not destroy, but hand in, completed voter registration forms?

Quote from article there by Adam Doster: "ACORN flags and turns in three kinds of cards, those that it can verify, those that are incomplete, and those that it flags as problematic. It turns those in labeled in a special way and are very conservative in terms of what it flags as problematic. It has stacks of problematic cover sheets. [...]

The Lake County Board knew about the questionable registrations today because ACORN flagged them for the board. For example, the Jimmy John’s card is one that a caller had flagged and labeled as problematic. ACORN can get that caller to talk to the press."

Let's get the word out on this, and also be sure that the Republican refusal to allow satellite voting sites in Lake County, IN -- ones that were used in the Democratic primary -- is as well known.