The ACORN Hysteria
I'm usually not watching cable news in the morning, but I was watching MSNBC this morning and the lead story was ACORN and voter fraud (this was well before they turned to Michael McDonald's erudite analysis of the electoral map). The report, on the most pro-Democratic of the three news networks, was breathless and incredulous. How could so much fraud be going on? Yesterday, I got a call from CNN and did an interview about the ACORN controversy. I did not realize the segment was for the Lou Dobbs show in a segment about "The Felon Vote." (Transcript here, about halfway down.) And of course FOX is covering ACORN as though it were the financial crisis.
What is totally missing is perspective. Yes, let's take it as a given that, as I've said, ACORN's business model is broken and the level of criminal activity by some of their rogue employees is unacceptable. (I have gotten a lot of pushback about this, mainly falling into two categories: (1) as a percentage of all ACORN employees, the number actually prosecuted is small, or (2) ACORN is no worse than other registration groups, but it is being targeted because of its political leanings. This is a debate we can have another time.)
But we know that fraudulent voter registrations don't translate into election fraud at the polls that has any reasonable chance of influencing an election, much less a presidential election. But that doesn't stop people like John Eastman, on Airtalk with me yesterday, to use the Ohio litigation to claim that up to 200,000 people are committing voter fraud in Ohio. The fact is that because of data entry error, use of nicknames, and other problems completely unconnected to fraud, voter registration rolls will have lots of mismatches. Almost none of it has to do with fraud.The Brennan Center has done unparalleled work demonstrating that most voter fraud claims are bogus, and the little voter fraud that exists in registration and impersonation voting is not affecting the outcome of elections. The same is true of claims of the dead voting. Lots of sensationalist allegations are made, but when they are investigated, it turns out almost invariably to be a case of something besides fraud: a person signing the wrong line in a poll book, a confusion of two people with the same or similar names, or some other problem.
As I wrote in Slate last year:
Second, there's no question that there's a fair amount of registration fraud in this country, an artifact of the ability in many states to pay bounty hunters by the head for each new registrant. Some unscrupulous people being paid $3 to $5 for each card turned in will falsify registration information, registering pets or dead people or comic-book characters -- none of whom will show up to vote on Election Day (with or without an ID). (I, for one, would turn the whole business of voter registration over to the government and couple a universal voter-registration program with a national voter-ID card paid for by the government -- but that's another story.)
Third, and perhaps most importantly, the idea of massive polling-place fraud (through the use of inflated voter rolls) is inherently incredible. Suppose I want to swing the Missouri election for my preferred presidential candidate. I would have to figure out who the fake, dead, or missing people on the registration rolls are, and then pay a lot of other individuals to go to the polling place and claim to be Mary Poppins or Old Dead Bob, without any return guarantee -- thanks to the secret ballot -- that any of them will cast a vote for my preferred candidate. Those who do show up at the polls run the risk of being detected ("You're not my neighbor Bob who passed away last year!") and charged with a felony. And for what -- $10? As someone who's thought about this a lot, if I really wanted to buy votes in an enforceable and safe way, I'd find eligible voters who would allow me to watch as they cast their absentee ballots for the candidate of my choice. Then, I would pay them. (Notably, ACVR and supporters of voter-ID laws have generally supported exemptions from ID requirements for voters who use absentee ballots.) Or, I might find an election official to change the votes. Polling-place fraud, in short, makes no sense.
Finally, on the issue of lack of detection: State and local officials have uncovered a fair amount of the absentee-ballot vote-buying I've just described, even though that behavior, too, is illegal and likely hidden from public view. The DoJ devoted unprecedented resources to ferreting out polling-place fraud over five years and appears to have found not a single prosecutable case across the country. The major bipartisan draft fraud report (PDF) (recently posted by Slate and suppressed by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission [TimesSelect subscription required]) concluded that there is very little polling-place fraud in the United States. Of the many experts the commission consulted, the only dissenter from that position was a representative of the now-evaporated ACVR.
So what explains the obsession with ACORN? From Republicans, I think the irresponsible hyperbole of Sen. McCain and some of his "Honest" legal team members serves three purposes:
1. Guilt by association. If ACORN is doing something wrong and Senator Obama is tied to ACORN, that sullies Sen. Obama. It also changes the discussion, which is something you want to do if you are behind.
2. Laying the groundwork for voter purges and voter challenges.
3. Providing a basis to challenge the results of the presidential election in the event of a very close race with Sen. McCain a little behind in a battleground state like Ohio that matters for the results. Remember in 2000 when Republicans called on Al Gore to concede because he had no good legal argument. Voter fraud would be the claim that would be used to distinguish 2000.
And what explains the media's fascination with ACORN and election fraud?
1. Cable news loves anecdotes and "human interest" stories (think Joe the Plumber) and they love stories of scandal. It is more interesting than covering the differences in the health care proposals of the two candidates.
2. Cable news loves a horserace, and if Sen. Obama is running away with things it is not as interesting to cover as a close race down to the wire.
3. Even responsible news organizations need to cover the story, when the McCain campaign pounds it every day and the FBI leaks word of an investigation to the AP.
We might ask what the harm is of the ACORN hysteria. I'd say the harm is to voter confidence in the political process, something I'll be tackling in a Findlaw column next week.
For more recent ACORN news and commentary, see Dahlia Lithwick, The Times Picayune, David Iglesias, The NY Times (editorial; news story); and Hendrik Hertzberg.
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What CNN is doing is wrong. So wrong. They are aiding the GOP to lead a baseless charge to justify voter suppression. Do we remember why those US attys were fired 2006? For not going along with the GOP and investigate bogus voter fraud cases! They are doing it again and CNN is helping!
http://med
http://was
PLEASE complain to CNN and make them report the news in a responsible way.
http://www
If it really was fraud, ACORN would have used PLAUSIBLE names.
Exactly, and they would have mixed them in with legitimate ones, not pull them aside and flag them.
NOW THIS IS FRAUD! Why doesn't this get air time on CNN? This is real.
YPM, a group hired by the GOP, allegedly deceived Californians who thought they were signing a petition.
Voters contacted by The Times said they were tricked into switching parties while signing what they believed were petitions for tougher penalties against child molesters.
http://www
UPDATE: It seams Mark Jacoby head of YPM has been arrested and charged with VOTER FRAUD here in Calif. Let see he was hired by who???...N
Obama / Biden 08
Hey Rick,
Here's a BBC short film about what's going on with voter fraud and voter purging.
http://www
I don't understand white folk. McCain is hiring the same firm that savaged him in 2000. In my universe you don't forget a sleight a person much less engage in character assassination. As my grand father used to say, you have to have amor propio. You have to respect yourself. McCain has sent out a message that implies that Obama is a terrorist, and he is unpatriotic. McCain has had countless opportunities to repudiate or correct his lies but he wants to win even if he tears the country apart. He is worse than the people who savaged John Murtha. Palin has has the honor of a hyena. She won't go on TV and repeat the assertions to a news anchor so she can be questioned. She is afraid. McCain hides behind her. Meanwhile, she has divided the US into the real America and the unpatriotic rabble. Well, I am a veteran, John Murtha is a veteran and so are many others are veterans. We and the average Americans who are not veterans are patriotic. As Joe Biden says, they wouldn't get away with this in my neighborhood.
Although I don't believe the race will end of being so close that the ACORN issue will matter, what I do imagine happening is that the GOP is laying its propaganda groundwork for its non-thinking base to believe Obama stole the election.
When Obama wins, watch this whole ACORN thing metastasize through the right-wing echo chamber myth-making machine into a conspiracy that McCain would've otherwise won if Obama hadn't used voter fraud to get into office.
The ACORN incident is oh, so easy to create!!!
All you have to do is pay or place people to create bogus voter registration forms, it's a classic case of well known Republican dirty tricks ops.
Why not follow the money and find out who did it and how they were rewarded?
That's the REAL story!
Happiness Hacker - Atlanta
This is a Carl Rove and Republican poly to suppress votes the same thing happen in the 2004 re election of George Bush this is the reason they fire all of the DOJ attorneys we have a on going investagation into the last time this happen and to Obama credit his Attorney has ask for a special investgation into this they can let the Special Investagtor Apointed to look into the first action to look into this.
Sure you can call it "Hysteria" but that is just what it would be if all those ; first name Mickey last name Mouse were all to show up at polls all across America...
HuffPost's Pick
If you're trying to cover up the fact that you're a war-monger regarding Iran, accuse your opponent of being a war-monger regarding Pakistan.
If you're trying to cover up the fact that you're an elitist in personal wealth, accuse your opponent of being an elitist intellectually.
If you're trying to cover up the fact that you don't care much about a vast swath of America, accuse your opponent of being Anti-American.
If you're trying to cover up the fact that your economic plans are the same old-same old discredited supply-side economics, accuse your opponent of being the same old-same old liberal economics.
And if you hope to steal an election (if you can just get it close enough), accuse your opponent of trying to steal the election.
Don't you think it's strange for the Left, which for the last few years has screamed about voting machines, voter fraud and election stealing, to not think ACORN is a real issue? Saying that ACORN isn't really a problem because someone won't show up to vote as Mickey Mouse is a good point, but then again those on the Left fight reasonable efforts to require IDs when people show up at the polls. It's the Left that stands for liberalizing voting requirements and standards.
So which is it? Are you against voter fraud or are you willing to accept a little naughtiness if it SEEMS harmless (and benefits Democrats)?
No fraudulent votes have been cast.
Fraudulent voting is illegal and wrong.
I'm a wine drinking, quiche eating, German car driving, city living, lefty liberal.
They keep calling it Voter Fraud when it isn't fraud yet. It is fraud after they vote.
After HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of votes cast over the years you know how many were actually fraudulent? SIX 6 Get it? Our system works and nothing will happen.
FRAUD is voter suppression when people who are legally allowed to vote are prevented for any little reason like what they were doing in Ohio.
I do not see anyone saying ACORN is not a real issue; just not a real relevant issue, because it has no effect on the outcome of the election.
If only those who are elevating the ACORN story were similarly outraged at the fraud which has occurred using electronic voting machine technology.
A few fraudulent registrants versus thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of electronically manipulated votes. Where is the outrage from Fox about all that?
Fair and balanced?
Uh, no, and no.
The ACORN organization is required to keep every voter that was registered - which they do. They hire local unemployed people to canvass and expect some fake registering so they sort the lists to catch the obvious fakes. The election officials are ALWAYS warned accordingly - and Mickey Mouse doesn't vote anyway. Not a real problem.
Election Fraud as presently committed does not involve impersonating voters - prove me wrong with an example of one conviction for voter impersonation - just one. Impersonation requires too many people - and is easy to spot should the real impersonated person show up.
The frauds have been - election machine manipulation, and tricks like "caging" designed to disenfranchise large numbers of voters unlikely to vote for the Repub candidate.
Voter photo ID is fine provided 1) it is FREE - and 2) easy to obtain - and not 3) used as a ploy to discourage poor voters.
In Canada registered voters without photo ID can identify themselves with 2 utility bills showing name and address, vouching by another registered voter with proper ID - or by swearing an oath
(risking perjury for lying) that they are the person claimed. All ballots are paper - and we don't seem to have a problem.
For a lighter look at voting,
See bumper sticker reading
A turkey in your house
Not in the White House
Vote
Non partisan slogan at http://www
I'm going crazy with the MSM not saying what is actually happening: The Republicans are attempting to disenfranchise a large portion of the population. They need to actually report the news and not try to equate the ACORN mess with the legalized assault on our democracy. Voter caging, voter purging, voter registration laws, the Department of Justice firing lawyers because they did not want to prosecute fraud that did not exist, etc., etc., etc. It's like equating Barack Obama's legitimate attacks ads with Sarah Palin inciting violence -- they are not the same, it is not tit for tat, and the MSM is letting us all down with the horse race crap. I guess we all watch and make the advertisers happy, and therefore the corporate owners. This pablum is depressing.
It is clearly a false flag operation designed to cover up their own current, past and planned massive voter fraud and clinch the election for the repugs by blocking as many dem votes as possible. Hopefully enough registered republicans will vote for Obama and actually get their votes counted properly.
You are missing the point. Whenever the Republicans see a big problem there is a private contractor friend somewhere in the background to "fix" it using our tax dollars.
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