How McCain Will Steal the Election from Obama (Sort Of)

Imagine an election where one of the participants calls foul. Investigations are launched or at least called for. Prosecutors raise the specter of charges, the U.S. attorney and FBI get involved. No voter fraud is ever actually found. But by the time that conclusion is reached, the myth has been solidified both to soothe the loser's supporters and condemn the winner.

Sound familiar? Sound like the recent ACORN scandal?

Well, actually I'm talking about the 1960 election between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. That Nixon was cheated out of a win is the stuff of legend on the Right. The allegations say that Kennedy loyalists fixed the vote counts in Illinois and Texas--swinging 51 electoral votes and a majority in the Electoral College to Kennedy. In more hyperbolic versions there is alleged involvement by the mob, the Teamsters Union or legendary Chicago mayor Richard Daley.

The story goes on that Nixon, "for the good of the country," conceded honorably and exited the scene. No matter that Nixon was later chased out of the White House for cheating in an election. The myth endures.

This whole story--maybe to be replayed with Obama playing Kennedy and McCain playing Nixon--is a canard. It is a fable. A lie made up by the conservative movement to hold together their fraying coalition.

In 2008 the stakes are bigger than they've ever been before for conservatives and the canard is that much more important to them.

In the case of Obama the conservative movement is lining up a serious of story elements. They are:

• Obama was a community organizer.
• ACORN, a group that does community organizing, has committed voter fraud.
• Obama is from Chicago.
• You know what happens in elections in Chicago. Remember the 1960 election.

The story is half true and half lies. As we all know, Barack Obama is from Chicago and was a community organizer. Those are the only true parts of the conservative story. But the other two facts are myths: the 1960 election wasn't stolen (says the conclusion of recounts and investigations in 1960 and numerous academic studies since). And, ACORN has not committed voter fraud. Not one bit.

The facts about ACORN are worth getting out. ACORN is an organization that, among other things, registers low-income people to vote. One of the ways they do this is to hire door-to-door canvassers from the neighborhoods they are working in. This sort of work is tightly regulated. So, when one of the thousands of people they give jobs to doesn't do their work right and brings back bogus or phony voter registration cards, the law REQUIRES that ACORN turn the forms in to the voter registration office. The law, rightly, doesn't want anybody throwing out voter registration forms for any reason.

But ACORN goes a step farther. They have people assigned to do quality control on all the cards--calling people on the forms after they fill them out. When they find bad information on the cards they attach a cover sheet to the card but, as mentioned above, they turn in the cards as required by law. The effect is that a few bad canvassers or a poorly run office will mean that bad cards are submitted as part of the normal process. But ACORN has done everything possible to make sure voting officials know to check the forms.

The sad fact is that in at least one state--Nevada--the voting officials disregarded ACORN's cover sheets flagging the voter registration forms. That should have never happened. The resulting blowup was a scandal in search of a scandal.

The stunning con of this whole thing is the assumption that bad voter registration cards being submitted will lead to vote fraud. If somebody submits a card for Mickey Mouse it isn't like Mr. Mouse is going to show up to vote. There is no voter fraud if nobody votes.

But the big story here is what the Right is doing. Their attacks on ACORN open up the door for two things.

First, the ACORN myth allows the Republicans to do more purging of the voter rolls--the process of removing people from the voter rolls because of arbitrary anomalies in the voter registration databases. Richard L Hasen, author of the Election Law Blog and a distinguished law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles recently wrote, "Careless purging--driven by unsubstantiated fears about voter fraud--can lead to many eligible voters being incorrectly removed from the polls." Already in Ohio the Republican Party is pushing for more purging and they found a federal judge who agreed citing ACORN's activities.

Second, in the event that campaigning, purging and intimidating voters doesn't work, the Right is creating a myth like they did in 1960. They are creating the myth of a stolen election. Conservatives plan to claim that ACORN and Barack Obama stole the election. Their hope is to steal the legitimacy of what is looking like a massive repudiation of Bush, conservatives and the Republican Party. The Right plans to steal the election by trying to steal the legitimate defeat of them by progressive forces.

And why wouldn't they? The entire Republican coalition could be shattered with this election. White suburban voters who once voted Republican on tax issues are running away from Republicans on a host of issues--including taxes. Independent are looking more and more like Democratic voters. Barack Obama may even win a majority of male voters. All of them are joining with urban votes, voters of color, young people, working class union members and others to form a long-term governing majority for progressives--a progressive majority.

Conservatives are scared of a progressive majority. And they're going to lie, cheat and steal to prevent it from happening. But they can only be successful if we let them.

The best way to deflate the conservative fable is to win with an overwhelming landslide that guarantees there won't be a dispute of the results.

We also need to confront the Republican vote purging and suppression. Already big efforts by the Obama campaign, the DNC and independent groups are working on this. Progressives and Democrats are united in this effort.

But we also need to make sure the ACORN canard doesn't get to live in daylight. It is time to circle the wagons and make sure John McCain and the Right can't steal the election...even if we win.

For progressives, the ball is in our court.

UPDATE: Don't take my word for it. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has an editorial on the topic. They write:

Here's what else you should know about these charges on ACORN's efforts in about 11 states.

The organization is obligated to turn in every registration card completed, even, as one spokesman put it, if it has the name Daffy Duck on it. The organization says it segregates and flags suspect cards to election authorities. It apparently doesn't catch all of them. But a vast conspiracy? We're doubtful. If a worker taking illegal shortcuts fakes a name on a registration card, that act overburdens election officials, but do we really think that the faked person will vote?

Voter registration fraud, when it occurs, is a serious matter, and it's obvious that even if ACORN is catching many, the number of bad registrations it is turning in points to quality control problems. However, most of the cards submitted, said Milwaukee's top election official, appear to be good.

If the past is prologue, much of this ballyhoo is really about those new voters and who they might vote for.

My point exactly.

Comments

[Badbone]

The best way to determine if an action is good or bad is to invert it. If the other side were doing that action, would we so easily dismiss it?

So, if republicans were falsifying voting records, what would we say about it? Would we call it ballywho if they did it?

[Ovis]

Badbone is right, we only did it in 2000 to keep the country out of the hands of the enemy.
Imagine how screwed up the country would be without the supreme court stopping the count and letting Bush in to stop the bleeding from the sorry state the Clinton's left the country in.

[beauregard62]

It won't happen this tme. We are watching the voting system very carefully, and the numbers for Obama will be so overwhelming, no chance for the Repubs to steal it.

[wichitazen]

"I don't trust the republicans any more after eight years of lies and deceptions. I think that the notion of them doing ANYTHING keep Obama from the White House should not be overlooked. Someone else made mention about investigating the idea that many GOP scouts go into ACORN and began messing with voter registration themselves then expose it as a possible issue( that is is not ) JUST wait until Obama wins ... They will NOT be gracious at all and demand recounts and charge fraud and throw ANYTHING to see if it sticks."
My fear exactly. We have seen everything from the Brooks Brothers riot to the Diebold mystery votes, from North Carolina absentee oddities to New Mexico phantom votes. After the Limbaugh effect, where GOP members waltzed over to the other primaries and skewed votes, and after Lieberman won by a similar effort, what would prevent the above from being a reality? In fact, I'd bet my vanishing retirement that it IS happening. I live where former chief justice Rhenquist cut his teeth lawyering, including, by an eyewitness account from a lawyer friend of mine, merrily intimidating minority voters in south Phoenix years ago, by challenging them and fooling them into thinking they were not eligible to vote. True story. Not known by very many people...just shows to go you that this is endemic to the right.

[libertron]

The author is missing the point of why what ACORN is doing is wrong. Most people who vote do so A: to shape the government by their own political beliefs, B: out of a sense of civic duty, or some combination of both. When ACORN goes out to "get" people to vote, it dilutes the value of every vote from people who had enough sense to do it on their own.

[SCReuter]

You've got to be kidding.

[EgbertSouse]

Are you kidding me?

Maybe you would like that only land owners could vote?

Why are you afraid of poor people?

I hope thinking like yours goes down with your corrupt political party.

[libertron]

I have been "working" poor for most of my life. Just recently I make a bit of money and the gov takes nearly half of it to spend on these social programs that Obama and ACORN seem so keen on.

Funny, back when I had to balance my checkbook to see if I could go to the grocery store or buy a tank of gas, I don't remember the gov showering money down on me with all of these socialist wealth redistribution plans.

I have a feeling they just keep the money for themselves and spend it whereever they can buy votes to get re-elected.

[Soulsurfer]

A double flip, with a twist and half-gainer.............I give it an 8.5!

[wadda]

Another latte, sir?

[marijam]

Unfortunately the lie and Obama's own statement about "spreading the wealth" has convinced some of the undecideds to swing to McCain. The latest Zogby poll shows Obama losing from 52% down to 46% between Friday and today, with McCain picking up at least four percent in the same time frame and Zogby says the data shows that it is men who are making up their minds. Web sites such as the Huff Post, instead of leading with Sarah Palin stories should be leading with stories like this one.

[nutty4tahoe]

Sorry, doesn't fly. This morning's (Sun.) Gallup poll: Obama 50%, McCain 42%. (McCain down from 43% three days ago).

[SwingingFromCenter]

Oh please. Polls are bunk. There is NO WAY people sway that quickly over nothing. All these wild swings just go to show that polling doesn't work.

[MsLiz]

Your comment is bunk. Polls are pretty accurate predictors of elections. I haven't seen the poll referred to, and don't want to believe it.

[c3pachman]

This race was going to tighten. You can see Senator McCain gaining a slight bit of ground but you do NOT see Senator Obama losing ground. If you look at all the polls, that is exactly what is happening. If you look at individual states' polling, the independents are moving to Obama in large numbers and making many states which voted solidly Republican in 2000 and 2004 battleground states. This "spreading the wealth" myth is doing no damage whatsoever to Senator Obama's campaign. Most people are ignoring this latest tactic in a long line of failed tactics of the McCain campaign to turn this race around. None of them have worked. None of them will.

[enoughofthiscrapalready]

Why do cable news, ABC, NBC, CBS & PBS have such a hard time relaying this factual information out to their viewers? The ACORN story would disappear as fast as it surfaced if news stations relayed the story as clearly as the above article outlined it. But no -the media play into the hands of the GOP every damn election cycle...what gives??

[nutty4tahoe]

The three MAJOR networks: ABC, CBS and NBC are all owned by corporate conglomerates who no doubt subscribe to the Republican agenda, or at least what it used to be. You gotta admire NBC, however, for having the guts to espouse both points of view on their airwaves, at least in cable prime time. It's probably more a decision about ratings than political ideology, however.

The Colin Powell endorsement this morning should take up the media's news cycles for at least the next several days. Good for Obama, bad for McCain. Next up in the McCain/Palin good cop-bad cop agenda: Sarah Palin attacking Colin Powell as unAmerican while McCain, as he did this morning, says he still admires the man. When will they realize the American public sees through this sleaze?

[AnalyzeIT]

Good post - thank you

OBAMA-BIDEN

[Patriot4Obama]

This article is 100% correct, McCain and the GOP depend on fear to help them win yet another election. By besmirching ACORN and their honest efforts to bring in the vote, they show what is truly scary about the GOP party. In fact we discussed this earlier on Patriots For Obama.

http://www.patriotsforobama.org/blog/

[arby2]

I live in a very republican suburb of Milwaukee, WI. Our kids were playing in the yard and a car was parked in front of my neighbor's house. She went out to see what they were doing and asked if she could help them. A woman said that they were planning where to go first as they were starting to canvass for McCain. She then went on to say that she and her friend were being paid $10/hr to do this but they were told that they had to say they were volunteers when they went to the doors. My friend said that they could skip her house (and mine as well) as we were voting for Obama. This woman then said that they were too!!! but they needed the money. Seems a bit fraudulent to me.

[MsLiz]

Hey I like the idea of some McCain supporter putting money into the hands of two needy women.

[alfo]

THE LEVEL THAT REPUBLICANS ARE WILLING & HAVE STOOPED TO SHOULD RAISE QUESTIONS TO REAL AMERICANS. REPUBLICANS HAVE SULLIED THE BRAND OF AMERICA TO THE WORLD WE'VE SHREDDED THE CONSTITUTION,INVADED SOUVERIGN COUNTRIES,OUTTED CIA AGENTS,TORCHERED PRISONERS,STOLEN ELECTIONS.WHAT'S LEFT?

[OrganOfThought]

I agree with what you said, but please don't type in ALL CAPS. It is hard to read and therefore considered rude in most circumstances.

[MsLiz]

And please don't speak of "the brand of America." Treating our nation's reputation like soap or toilet paper to be advertised and sold is offensive. Maybe if the advertising men who ran political campaigns had taken philosophy, political science and history instead of marketing, they would have more respect for democracy.

[AnalyzeIT]

WOW - powerfully stated.

obama-biden

[MarkBoston]

I don't trust the republicans any more after eight years of lies and deceptions. I think that the notion of them doing ANYTHING keep Obama from the White House should not be overlooked. Someone else made mention about investigating the idea that many GOP scouts go into ACORN and began messing with voter registration themselves then expose it as a possible issue( that is is not ) JUST wait until Obama wins ... They will NOT be gracious at all and demand recounts and charge fraud and throw ANYTHING to see if it sticks.

[greencosmopolitan]

i call foul on this because people on the right all want mccain to win so bad that they are becoming increasingly blinded by their loss and it's hurting them terribly. I wish somebody would let them know what is going on and if somebody did then that they'd listen.

[EbonBear]

I think there is a deliberate attempt here to paint an Obama victory as illegitimite for three reasons:
1) Use the ACORN story as a way of throwing legitimite voters off the rolls in close races, swinging them to the Repubs, exactly as they are proven to have done in 2000;
2) If that doesn't work, rely on the SCOTUS to throw it to the Repubs again;
3) If that still doesn't work, use the impression as justification for launching a bazillion hostile investigations of President Obama in hopes of impeaching him, just as they did to Clinton.

[Leslie12]

Has anyone investigated whether or not these bogus registrations are being turned in by Republicans who have infiltrated ACORN in order to discredit the organization. Would this be so usual for such a desparate campaign? Why wouldn't Obama give money to an organization to improve participation of the disenfranchised populations in the democratic process? The actual ligitimate voters will vote their conscience in the booth. Every program has those individuals who take advantage of what they perceive as easy money. Like the contractors for Katrina recovery and Blackwater in Iraq. Why has it become liberal or left wing to care about your fellow man and to challenge your country to be the best it can be? The opposite of left must be not caring about your fellow man and accepting whatever dictates come down from Washington, like a dictatorship disguised as a democracy.

[peggyleg]

Oh, somehow I feel most Republicans have better thinksg to do than to inffiltrate an organization that Obama gave 800,000 dollars to, like , maybe, work?

Whatcha' think?

[smart won]

Work? Doesn't seem to be much of that lately thanks to your party, peg. And it's obvious the righties have lots of time on their hands to hang out at hate rallies to yell "Kill him! Kill him!" about Obama, which would have landed any progressive immediately in Guantanamo if they'd done it to ANY Republican! By the way, someone IS investigating the bogus ACORN bullshot - Obama's legal team led by attorney Bob Bauer. Looks like your party's over, whatcha think, peg? (WINK!)

[billbee]

I think you are just one more pathetic, ignorant, GOP idiot, stuck in the bog of delusion, and with this comment, prima face evidence of what happens when you can't think for yourself.

No doubt you enjoy comforts some other don't have and you elevate that as proof that you and yours are somehow better than any who don't have what you do e.g., a job perhaps.
You convict yourself as a damned blinded fool.

You summarily dismiss the truth facts about anyone, any organization and hastily march lockstep with any pathological liar deriding everything not deemed Norman Rockwell status quo.

You may not be able to handle the truth, and though you may try to trample it, truth will reign supreme!

[crowmd1]

Wow,How many times have the Re-thugs been caught in voter purging in just the last 8 years alone?
Why just in the last couple of months alone they have tried to get close to a million people who've lost there homes due to the hurricane's of the summer thrown off the voter lists in more than one state,and were caught doing it. The article is correct it serves a duel purpose for them because it takes the focus off the voter purging going on.
And the purging in multiple states particularly in the swing states if taken to task after the election and Obama wins,this president could again be decided by the supreme court,George Bush's supreme court,and guess which way it would go.And just as in 2000 the election will be stolen,Gore won the popular vote remember?
Regardless the purging numbers far outnumber any voter fraud going on and therein lies the point.It happened in 2000 and 2004 with college students,and minorities,and the poor.And it's happening again.They've already been caught since the summer with trying to get college students off the rolls and now the foreclosure's are being used as an excuse to purge. And you want to talk about maybe a few thousand people who've committed voter fraud? The numbers don't add up.

[peggyleg]

Wooo, wait a minute, what hurricane?? I need to know where you are talking about, this is an out and out lie!!!

[peggyleg]

crowmd1, I'm still waiting, what hurricane in the last couple of months caused over a million people here in the US to lose their homes?

[peggyleg]

Ok, crowmd1, you leave me no choice but to discredit your whole comment and dismiss anything else that you may, in any future post

I live in the most hurricane ravaged part of the country at this time, and I can assure you that 1 million "homeowners" have not been disenfranchised.

Please, please, tell the truth, I have not heard of one person losing their ability to vote due to the hurricanes of this summer. And I live where you are referring to, and believe me, it would have been all over the local and national news, not to mention the local talk radio.

Don't due the people of this great area more damage than the hurricane has already done by saying things that just aren't true..

A hurricane IKE survivor....

[crowmd1]

You want numbers i'll give them:In swing-state Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State conducted the biggest purge of voters in history, dumping a fifth of all registrations. Guess their color.

In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives " overwhelming Black voters.

In swing state New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor.

In swing states Ohio and Nevada, new federal law is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their homes to foreclosure.

in elections earlier this year in New Mexico, one in nine people who turned up at the polls found their names had simply vanished from the voter rolls.

In Detroit Michigan alone A reporter wrote that the local Republican chairman told the journalist that his party would challenge residents right at the polling station to stop them from voting if their names are on a foreclosure list. And how many homes across the land have had there homes foreclosed on due to hurricanes this year? hmm.

[smart won]

Wow, a wealth of information, peg! I don't imagine, with all of your experience as a hurricane survivor, etc. you've been charged with VWB like all the folks you're discrediting and accusing of lying as you just did? Try watching the documentary Uncounted: the New Math of American Elections, then try accusing the proven hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised voters that they're "saying things that just aren't true." Of course as they say, none are so blind as those who WILL NOT see...

[Wonder11]

My Republican brethren please to exit stage right. ...and take your lying, whining, thieving monkeybusiness with you! Your time has come and gone and your "target market" are all either in nursing homes or have had their children fill out the applications. CHANGE is in the wind and that wind is blowing away the fog that your party has been conjuring up for the past 8 years! To paraphrase a quote from GW, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, Shame on all of us!"

[peggyleg]

In other words, move over, common sense, us liberals are here to screw things up!!