Dems Roll Over, Mainstream Media Falls for GOP "Voter Fraud" Scam -- Again

While Democrats, most progressive bloggers and Obama supporters stand by idly, the GOP is once again ramping up the primary engine of the Department of Justice scandal -- bogus claims of voter fraud designed to disenfranchise thousands, if not millions, of low-income and minority voters. Once again, as echoed by John McCain today, the target is ACORN, which has registered 1.3 million voters in this election cycle.

Republican operatives are, justly, counting on the gullibility and scandal-seeking hunger of mainstream reporters, even supposedly objective CNN -- and their lack of knowledge of the Republican history of taking some error-plagued registration forms to create a myth of illegal voting at the polls. So the Republicans are re-launching their war on voting, using the same script of phony and exaggerated charges they've used in previous years.

Yesterday, the frantic McCain campaign added new smears: it sought to lump together everything from voting fraud to the economic crisis -- and blame it on poor blacks and ACORN in a new smear ad. But as the New York Times reports today:

The Obama campaign described the accusations as a spurious effort to tie Mr. Obama to potentially fraudulent voter registrations.

"Barack Obama strongly condemns voter registration fraud or any other breach of election law by any party or group," Ben LaBolt, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement.

Acorn, whose political action committee has endorsed Mr. Obama, has said that the investigations into its voter registration work are politically motivated.

"Rumors of Acorn's voter fraud have been greatly exaggerated and to a large extent manufactured," Bertha Lewis, the organization's interim chief organizer, or chief executive, said Monday in a conference call to announce that the organization had registered 1.3 million people to vote.

You can hear the full conference call with reporters here; Project Vote deputy director Michael Slater's rebuttal to the smears starts at 15 minutes, 56 seconds.

On top of that, ACORN's president Maude Heard pointed out:

"For almost a decade, ACORN, a community organization of 400,000 families in neighborhoods across the country, has been fighting against the predatory lending practices that have robbed our members of their homes, destabilized neighborhoods, and roiled the global economy."

"In his newest ad, John McCain's campaign bizarrely claims, "ACORN forced banks to issue risky home loans, the same types of loans that caused the financial crisis we're in today." Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, ACORN has worked successfully to help working class families get good home loans on fair terms from legitimate banks and has fought vigorously against predatory lenders who have ripped off families in our communities. These predatory loans caused the crisis...."

"Unfortunately, the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans like John McCain have blocked the sensible regulations that ACORN and others proposed that would have averted the mortgage meltdown."

All these smears are being abetted by the mainstream media as if the entire Department of Justice scandal never happened; several attorneys were fired, including New Mexico's David Iglesias, for failing to pursue thin and fake charges of voter fraud. As McClatchy papers reported last year, "Was campaign against voter fraud a Republican ploy?" The politicization of the Justice Department and its top officials' alleged criminal conduct, including grand jury subpoenas for officials who stonewalled the IG, were confirmed by a new inspector's general report. Is voter fraud a ploy? The answer, of couse, is yes.

Amid all the hooplah and phony charges, a striking statistic remains ignored: Despite a wide-ranging voter-fraud witch-hunt led by Attorneys General Ashcroft and Gonzales not one person in the entire country, out of over 200 million votes cast in federal elections, was even charged with impersonating another voter at a polling place between 2002 and 2005. Twenty-four people were convicted of illegal voting, mostly felons who didn't know they weren't allowed to vote in certain states.

Today, numerous clueless reporters phoned in to a conference call organized by Project Vote, which manages the voting drives along with Acorn, to ask a series of questions about "voter fraud" fed to them by Republican officials. But the Project Vote officials sought to explain that even with their careful vetting process, sometimes Acorn and Project Vote are scammed by their own temporary employees -- and they're required by law to turn in even obviously fake voter registration forms, which then they flag for election officials after firing those employees and referring their names for prosecution. CNN's Political Ticker reported:

Citing a long history of voter suppression in the country, ACORN spokesman Brian Kettenring said recent charges against the organization are just partisan attacks intended to undermine the group's voter registration efforts. "The current strategy seems to be, from the right, to create, to manufacture a so-called crisis of voter fraud . . . and then to solve that crisis through measures that are about constricting the electorate, narrowing the electorate, keeping people from being able to vote," he said.

But not one of the mainstream reporters from outlets ranging from MSNBC to CNN to Bloomberg news even mentioned the shameful history of voter fraud myth-making and the Department of Justice scandal. You can learn more about this sordid history in this column from this spring, looking at "DOJ's War on Black Voters."

As Brad Friedman of Brad Blog reports, trying to keep up with the ever-expanding raft of GOP stunts, gimmicks and phony charges that are left unchallenged by Democrats:

GOP OCTOBER 'SURPRISE' SPREADS TO OHIO: Coordinated Plan to Wreak Havoc,
Bring Bogus 'Voter Fraud' Allegations Hits Buckeye State

VIDEO: McCain Picks Up Phony ACORN 'Voter Fraud' Allegations in Stump
Speech Today

Concerns of Actual Election Fraud, Voter Registration Purges in State
After State, Completely Ignored by Republicans, Media...

The GOP's October "Surprise" continues...Even as it's no surprise at all that they are hoping to cause absolute bedlam at the polls. They are off to a good start, as the Democrats seem to be caught flat-footed, despite years of warnings about all of this.

The latest Republican assault on democracy began earlier this week with a 'stunt' raid in (swing state) Nevada, then unsubstantiated allegations in (swing state) Missouri last night (raid coming soon, no doubt), and just hours ago as AP reports, it's (swing state) Ohio...
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Law enforcement officials in southwest Ohio are seeking information on hundreds of voters who registered and voted during Ohio's weeklong same-day voting window.

Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer and representatives of County Prosecutor Stephen Haller have contacted the local Board of Elections asking for the voter registration cards of everyone who voted during the six-day window, which ended Monday.

Haller is the former law partner of Mike DeWine, the former Republican senator who is chairing presidential nominee John McCain's Ohio campaign.

[Update: In an updated version of the AP report quoted above, it's noted that Sheriff Fisher is "a Republican," that Green County is "rich with Democrat-leaning college students," and that Fisher requested the voter information after "he had been inundated with phone calls from people concerned about possible fraud." In other words, no actual evidence of anything, just angry Republicans, fired up by chasing their own tails after Fox/RNC told them too. Smelling the rats here, yet?]

Of course, the GOP's ACORN "Voter Fraud" Scam was picked up today by John McCain on the stump (and, mercilessly, on Fox "News" all morning, naturally). Here's McCain putting the scare tactics first, and democracy and country second, if even that high on his list.

But, once again, these claims will be used to justify the purging of voters and "voter caging" challenges at the polls to legitimate, mostly minority voters. Expect Democrats to do little except field some lawyers on Election Day who may offer legal challenges that are too late to make any difference.

Your only hope for ensuring a fair election is making sure that there's a massive turnout on Election Day -- and joining such groups as Election Protection, and calling 1-866-OURVOTE to volunteer or report problems. Don't count on the Democrats or the Obama organization to protect the vote for you.

Comments

[nowarpleez]

I suspect that Obama's lead will be so huge that the voter fraud argument will be nonsensical.

[BCubedReg]

"Elections are not won by those who cast the vote, but by those who count the vote". -- Stalin

This is just anther card in the republican deck to control the vote count.

[WorldGriot]

HELL NO. ITS FIGHTIN' TIME! REMEMBER OBAMA SAID, NOT THIS TIME. SO LETS FIGHT FOR ACORN. WE DON'T HAVE TO SAVAGE THESE ANARCHISTIC BEASTS JUST BECAUSE THEY SAVAGE ACORN BUT WE MUST GET OUR DEMOCRACY BACK. if democracy is worth fighting for overseas, it is damn sure worth fighting for here at home. we do a colossal disservice to the dead soldiers who fight our wars if we don't give them an enviable representative democracy to come home to. so it's time those of us who can lift a pen to get off our butts and go to the mat for ACORN. This organization does a monumental service for democracy and for our country. they strive to keep the poor viable and engaged so that Osama Bin Laden and his ilk don't have a ready path to creating sleeper cells in our midst. if we don't go to bat for ACORN, then we are creating a mammoth vulnerability right in our own back yard and we will be the ones who suffer. First, lets bury FOX news in paperwork denouncing their tyrannical, demagogic onslaught against our democracy. second, let's take on the heritage foundation and it's cohorts to stop the back-drop philosoppy that creates these monsters. then go after the news media like Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Bill O'reilly, etc and bring them back into the society of human beings. lets fight with pen, now sword but lets fight.

[ouroborous]

I sent emails to every single news organization that I could get ahold of (through fair.org) asking them for some balance in their ACORN reporting.

We have to keep the pressure on to report both sides of the story. If they want a scandal, let's feed them a REAL scandal: how the GOP is gearing up to steal an election through the disenfranchisement of thousands of poor and minority voters, all in the name of hunting for nonexistent "voter fraud."

HuffPo readers, share the responsibility for keeping the pressure on. Tell everyone you can, talk to your senators and cogresscritters, talk to the news media. Make it clear that this smear campaign against ACORN is unacceptable.

[mwestorca]

What most people don't seem to realize is that if Acorn turns in fraudulent voter registrations, it's Acorn against whom the fraud has been perpetrated. In fact, they do hire lots of very poor people at minimum wage to go out and collect registrations. Sometimes their workers pad their pocketbooks by turning in fake registrations. However, they don't lead to fraudulent votes, because no one is actually going to go vote as "Jimmy Johns Restaurant." Everyone who goes to vote has to show voter ID. Those extra fraudulent forms cost ACORN because they have paid more to the worker than he has earned. They don't effect the ballot box. Plus, even if if they see that there are some which are suspect, they are required, by law, to turn in the whole batch. They flag them as potentially incorrect.

So why all the outrage. It's wrong. It needs to be stopped. But it's not adding up to a fake vote. It may affect statistics as to how many people are registered. But people aren't doing multiple voting. That's where voter fraud happens.

[TimmySlagle]

" Everyone who goes to vote has to show voter ID."

No. Currently 23 States do not require ID. ACORN has consistently been opposed to ID requirements for voting. In fact, they took it all the way to Supreme Court.

Here is the brief filed by ACORN in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board:

http://bre­nnan.3cdn.­net/5189d7­440d3f884b­c7_zym6bxi­20.pdf

[Brad Friedman - Huffpost Blogger]

Wrong.

Anyone who does not register in person, is required to show ID when they go to vote the first time.

ACORN has not opposed "ID requirements", they've opposed draconian Photo ID restrictions at the polling place (such as the requirement for state-issued drivers licenses), since anywhere from 20 to 30 million Americans (coincidentally, mostly Dem-leaning Americans) don't have such ID, and would be disenfranchised from their legal right to vote.

[perclidestide]

I'm glad people are talking about this false voter registration scandal. We ALL know that all it takes is a few Rove infiltrators to sneak in, write up dozens of fake voter forms, and make it look like the democrates through the ACORN organization, was stupid enough to do this. My question is, WHAT ABOUT ALL THE VOTERS NAMES THAT HAVE BEEN PURGED FROM VOTER ROLLS IN SEVERAL STATES? Is someone working on legally retrieving those thousands of purged names?

[ouroborous]

ACORN is required, by law, to turn in the registration forms, even if they're obviously fraudulent. They are also required to report the probably fraudulent ones.

All the big "scandal" about ACORN is, is ACORN obeying the law.

Let's deflate this "scandal" now, before the GOP causes it to infect the general populace (and not just their rabid, incredibly­-shrinking base).

[SpoxLogic]

The MSM is surely dropping the ball. However, to say the Obama camp is idly standing by doesn't tell the full story. If by idly standing by, you mean not talking about it a lot on the stump - then you have a case. However, they have been taking these yahoos to court.

[Brad Friedman - Huffpost Blogger]

No, they have been -- by and large -- idly standing by.

Ask them why they haven't challenged the state of PA who declared that no voters need be given a paper ballot unless ALL voting machines break down in a precinct?

Ask them why they haven't signed the http://StandingForVoters.org pledge to not concede the election until every vote is counted, counted accurately, and all challenges adequately resolved.

The Dems have brought a knife to this gunfight, and are, by and large, committed to a slightly-beefed up version of John Kerry's '04 election protection strategy ("thousands of attorneys on the ground if anything goes wrong on election day!" -- but by then, of course, it's far too late).

[LizM]

Can we please have an election that is so far from close so as to make any possibility of registration and/or voter fraud a moot point!? I mean...FOR GOD'S SAKE!...what exactly is it that makes this particular election anywhere near being a close call and subject to all of this nonsense?

[vincealy]

Any investigation that emanates from the Bush justice department especially during an election cycle must be assumed to have political motivation. Just ask former Alabama governor Singleton. . The stench of Rovian politics is clear.

[Snowball]

Ten to one that the faked outrage over ACORN gets more play in the Corporate Media than the results of the Palin investigation in Alaska.

[dshwa]

No bet here.

[6bd]

The Bush administration proports to be on a mission to spread democracy, albeit via voting Americans.

[LizM]

There is nothing supposedly objective - or all that competent, for that matter - about CNN...generally speaking, of course.

[CynAnne]

I must agree, Liz..I saw the CNN 'story' yesterday morning, and it seemed decidedly slanted towards ACORN being duplicitous, but providing very little evidence to back up such serious charges (note their heavy useage of the terms "..might be forgeries.." and "..sources say they might be fraudulent.." in regards to the submitted registrations). Curious that the "Best Team in News" didn't seem interested in getting the story as accurately as they could have, hmm..? ;) ...

[LizM]

This is so par for the course - for CNN and for most of the rest of the media, mainstream and otherwise. I don't think that it is as much a case of media bias or slanted reporting as it is simply a manifestation of media incompetence and ineptitude.

If the Obama/Biden ticket is victorious in November - and God help us all if they are not - then it will be DESPITE a free press that is seemingly incapable of carrying out their duty and responsibility in a democratic society and the ignorance that they have done so little to mitigate. Frankly, the "new media" of the blogosphere hasn't been much better.

[Brad Friedman - Huffpost Blogger]

Their coverage was a disgrace.

Would have fit in well on Fox "News", I'm sorry to say.