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.
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Only a muncipality with it's head in the sand would use a Diebold machine during an election.
As long as you don't count the fact that ACORN is giving out cigarettes, money, and who knows what else to get people to register, as long as you don't count all of the phoney registrations that ACORN empoloyess have submitted, as long as you don't count the fact the Obama campaign has contributed 800,000 to ACORN to help "get out the vote", I guess I would agree that no oter fraud had occured, seeing as the election hasn't even taken place nor has one vote been counted yet.
How about providing some links?
Really? Can you prove this?
Sure, I can prove this, it's not Nov. 4, 2008 yet, the election hasn't taken place yet. I believe it's Oct. 15th today, right?
Ok suppose we use your logic.
Mickey Mouse registers to vote, they check it out and see it's fraudulent.
Then what?
They turn it in because they have to turn in ALL the registrations. 100%
Is that voter fraud?
No, because he has no voter card. He can't vote.
Suppose he gets a voter card, somehow, someway.
He goes to the voter booth. they ask him for ID.
Then what?
He has none.
Is that voter fraud?
No, because he has ID. He can't vote.
Why would McCain praise this organization when he was a speaker there if this somehow destroys the "fabric of democracy" ?
Either way he's talking shite. They were wonderful when it suited his purpose and now it suits his purpose to denegrate them.
I'll sit down and wait for my answer.
Tom: "ACORN has not committed voter fraud. Not one bit." REALLY??? what about...
--Lake County, Indiana found more than 2,100 bogus applications among the 5,000 Acorn dumped right before the deadline.
--- 2004- Acorn employees were indicted in Ohio for submitting false voter registrations
---2005, Colorado Acorn workers were found to have submitted false registrations
---2006 Acorn Missouri employees were indicted in ; five were found guilty in Washington state in 2007 for filling out registration forms with names from a phone book.
---July of 2008: Houston rejected/held about 40% of the 27,000 registration cards submitted by Acorn
Now for your next big claim that Obama has nothing to do with ACORN...
---1992 Directed Project Vote collaboration with ACORN
---1995 served as a lawyer for the ACORN organization
---the Obama campaign paid $832,000 to an Acorn affiliate- they lied to the Federal Election Commission by saying the money was for lighting but then ADMITTED later it was to get votes out
If you want to spout philosophical arguments, go ahead-- but please, don't try to insult yourself by making completely false statement. I'm an asian-american woman and registered INDEPENDENT and you better believe that I'm asking both candidates the hard questions. I just wish Obama, as in his affiliations with Ayers, Wright, Frannie and Freddie, ACORN would start addressing these issues. He doesn't need to answer to the "right" he needs to answer to the American people.
Hmmm? Actually some of the early voting is in. Also, the United States of your America was the co-defendant with Obama - So, I would say 1. your first sentence is wrontg and 2. Your un-patriotic for saying your country is supporting voter fraud.
Provit: are you seriously that clueless? Here is what the official documents of the case listed as the plaintiffs:
75 F.3d 304 ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFORM NOW (ACORN), et al., Plaintiffs
Judson H. Miner, Jeffrey I. Cummings, Barack H. Obama, Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, Chicago, IL, for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Equip for Equality, Incorporated, Jacqueline Andrade, Gwendolyn Coleman, Chinetha Dixon, and Joey L. Wooden.
-----The United States was NOT A CO-DEFENDANT in this case at all. My first sentence stands as long as you can prove my FACTS wrong
-----You are unpatriotic for not understanding the importance of upholding the integrity of our right to vote
Do you have any other obtuse claims?
Terrific. Now please provide instances of fraudulent votes commited by (or with the help of) ACORN.
In other words, please stay on topic.
No, they still haven't comitted voter fraud. They may have comitted REGISTRATION fraud, which is not the same thing and it's questionable whether it would make any difference (since, as observed above, Mickey Mouse can't turn up to vote).
And Obama doesn't have an affiliation with Ayers. He and Ayers were cordial to each other when they served on the board of a charity together and Ayers held one fundraiser. That's the extent of their involvement. You may call yourself an independant but the fact that you are seemingly swallowing these lies whole indicates that you are only asking tough questions of one side.
Some Republicans are ashamed of their trunks.
They were, in your words, registrations. Not votes.
Tell me for the love of country sir, how will they become votes ?
But Obama has answered each of those questions.
Rev. Wright - he made a speech admitting that he was his pastor for 20 years and denoucing the racist and anti-american views of the Rev. which putting the Obama himself has never touted these extreme views himself. While
Ayers - The connections between Ayers and Obama are well documented. They served on two boards together in the education issue along with many others from many political sides. Ayers also hosted a coffee to meet the candidate when Obama ran for State Senate. None of this had anything to do with Ayers previous crimes, Ayers is not an advisor to Obama and Obama has denouced the actions of Ayers that were perpetrated 40 years ago.
ACORN - Obama ran 2 training sessions for Acorn in the early 90s. He also represented them along with the Justice dept. trying to get people to be able to register to vote at the DMV. His campaign gave 800k to acorn to do what they do, register voters.
Fannie and Freddie - Obama has received contributions from Fannie and Freddie execs as have many congress people on both sides of the aisle. There is no evidence of Obama doing anything improper in relation to these contributions.
The notion that Obama has not answered any of these questions is ridiculous as is the fact that the right wing media is covering this 24/7 when there is NO STORY.
AP: Ohio must set up a way to verify all new voters.
http://www
By Friday! SOS Jennifer Brunner "said nothing in the federal Help America Vote Act required her to do what the district court ordered."
That's probably true. Which means the Repubs, in using the Act to suppress the vote (as everyone knew they would) aren't even following the freaking rules!!
Truly, Repubs can get away with anything.
Keep in mind that Ohio's governor, SOS, and capital city mayor are Democrats. If the GOP can pull it off here, they can do it everywhere. And they will. 2008 might make 2004 look like nothing.
And thanks to JayeSF for alerting me to this new (and awful) news.
I love the fact that Dems would break the law and find some way to blame the republicans. The same as the dems cry "RACIST" any time anybody says ANYTHING against Obama. Even Ayers. The last time I looked he was white.
Voter fraud is real and everyone on both sides should be outraged. We are a democracy and this undermines that democracy.
Report to planet Earth immediately, Space Cadet.
"Dems would break the law"? Explain, please.
Then explain what it has to do with my post. Thanks.
"Voter fraud is real and everyone on both sides should be outraged." - kace
Sorry, but voter fraud does not exist. It's a scam. An imaginary threat created by the Republican Party — used as an excuse to purge tens of thousands of legal Democratic voters from the registration rolls and implement stricter voter ID laws which will then disenfranchise thousands of other legal Democratic voters.
I challenge you, or the Republican National Committee, or the Bush Administration, or the McCain campaign, or the Fox "News" Channel, to produce a list of 100 instances of deliberate voter fraud from any single state in America.
You wont be able to do it because again, voter fraud is a myth.
Now, registration fraud and election fraud are another matter. Those *are* real, but one only clogs up the voter verification process whereas the other is what the GOP did in 2000 and 2004, and are attempting to do in 2008.
Last time I looked Ayers was a college professor.
you know what at this point I wouldn't even care
I hear you. But remember--if we give up, the bad guys have won.
I cannot beleive that after eight years of this nonsense, this race is even close. It's a testament to the monumental stupidity of the American people. and the 2000 election will be the same thing to Democrats. The way to fix this is to make sure it isn't even close. But the American people are way tooooo stupid to do this.
So why do you live here?
Probably because he/she was born here.
Don/'t be fooled, it's not due to the stupidity of Americans that Obama is not further ahead, it's the fact that he can't close the deal! Just remember, 53% of Americans are conservatives, and they don't believe most of what Obama says...
McCain/Palin '08
It's because he's taken the high road, 30% of Americans are conservative.
score one for the slimy republicans in Ohio.....a full appeals court overturned a lower courts ruling which supported Sec. of State Jen Brunners contention that currently registered voters should not be put through add'l proof of valid registration.
....in short...ne
...I wouldn't expect Ohio to go blue.....t
but it doesn't matter....
neverthele
Well, in defense of Ohio, we are a purple state. Democratic governor and SOS, popular black mayor in our capital city, and on his second term. At the same time, we have a core of ultra-righ
I thought we'd be able to hold the vote-suppressors at bay. That's what I get for hoping.
We're talking more than 600,000 votes. And 21 days in which to "verify" them. What that means, I don't know. Make sure the voters are alive? Check their DNA? Make sure their data matches precisely across 25 databases, including the voter registration database?
From what I can gather, the rules behind the infamous Help America Vote Act are about as clear as thick mud on a dark, rainy afternoon. The Repugs are exploiting same. Why they're being allowed to do this a mere three weeks before the election is beyond me.
But the rules always seem to work against us Dems and for the Repugs.
Yea, I want to see Mickey Mouse at the polls. I can get his autograph.
Mickey Mouse at the polls? I did see Minnie Mouse at the VP debate not answering questions, and tonight we should see Goofy wandering around the stage.
So what if voters are asked to verify who they are??? If I was asked to verify I am who I am, I would have not problem with it. If I were asked to verify that I live where I live, I would have no problem with it. I have nothing to hide.
The verification issue is much more complicated than that--it involves "verifying" registration data via the state BMV or federal SS database, which 1) opens the door to meaningless data field mismatches, which the Repubs intend to use to disqualify voters, 2) places a huge burden on the state and counties, and the poll workers, 3) takes up huge amounts of time (on election day, and before) that no one has, 4) presumes fraud on the part of citizens registering to vote, which is a blatant violation of our right to vote.
In regard to 4), please note the very important difference between merely asking for ID and presuming intent to break the law. The difference is huge.
Worst of all, the Repubs appear to demanding verification, not only for newly registered voters (which is a huge enough group) but, potentially, for every voter listed on the state voter registration database (which is required by the comically named Help America Vote Act). The Repubs may literally shut down the election.
And I honestly believe they'd rather destroy the system than lose power. It's their way.
According to the polls today McCain will lose. Did ACORN fix the polls too? Come on people, just admit that your guy is going to lose fair and square because his campaign has been irratic, and did not have a message that resonated with the middle class, the working poor, the millions of people with no health insurance and with those that are tired of seeing this country spend so much money in Iraq on a war we never should have started. I think the final nail in the coffin of his campaign was the gimmick of selecting "Bible Spice" as his running mate.
No, McCain didn't fix the polls, but the pollsters did. All the polls showing this huge lead for Obama were done with an oversampling of Dems. This was done to discourage republicans to the point that they figure , why bother to vote? It's over.
Look at the Zogby poll, he's the only one who doesn't have a dog in this race. All he is concerned with is the accuracy of his polls.
And incidently, at this time in 2004, John Kerry was 11 points ahead of President Bush.
You would rather believe in a collosal conspiracy of pollsters than believe McCain (who's running the worst campaign I've seen in my life) is legitimatly losing.
And you guys wonder why we think Republicans are nuts...
Kerry was not 11 points ahead in the polls:
He was in fact behind.
http://www
Obama resinated w you? Was it Rev Wright or B Ayers that did it? You stupid peon Laughing..
I hope you are wrong.
"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."
Huh??
That assumes way too much:
That Obama will win.
That the election results will show that.
Last I heard, the vulnerabilities of the Diebold machines have not been fixed, nor the fact that the Elections Commission (for the first time in history, and unlike during the Kennedy/Nixon 'dispute') has no way of verifying the votes have been tallied correctly.
Don't forget the neocon Republican convict DeLay's Diebold machines were designed by his droogs, not Dem droogs.
What's the plan if the Diebold machines say McCain/Palin won? To squeal bloody murder?
Too little too late.
the Republicans will steal the election the same way they have stolen the last two:
purging the voter rolls;
limiting access to voting machinesand/or paper ballots in democratic precincts;
altering voting results;
and, if all else fails, cry foul and go to the friendly Supreme Cout.
Don't let that stop you from voting.
stolen? was there a group like Acorn putting false names on voter reg forms in 2000? 2004?
You are such an ass!
Cyanoia already answer your question ("stolen?"). If you read the post, you'll see that it was answered. I quote:
"purging the voter rolls;
limiting access to voting machinesand/or paper ballots in democratic precincts;
altering voting results;
and, if all else fails, cry foul and go to the friendly Supreme Court."
No offense, but I don't see how you could have missed the quote, since it makes up 3/4 of the entire post. You must have read it too fast.
Acorn gathered 72,000 signatures in Ohio, of which about 9,000 had missing or incorrect information. They were pulled aside. The two "dudes" who supposedly multiple registered, (one 73 times) were "like----helping their friends who said they had quotas and wanted to keep their paid jobs".
Bottom line, the errors were unintentional on ACORN's part, the system has no data base of newly registered voters of the day, (or maybe even week) to check to see if registrants are bogus. I believe that intentional multiple registration is illegal in Ohio and those who admit to having done so in any situation other than confusion (sure) should be "busted".
Why the DNC has not filed against Diebold Voting Machines, used in 33 states and on record in Georgia 2003 and Ohio Presidential 2004 of having DROPPED LEGITIMATE COUNTS, due to script added within days if not hours prior to the election, is beyond me.
The credability of the RNC is completely crumbled by their own obvious manipulations and misrepresentations.
It is frightening to admit that this is the party of people who say on National T.V. that "I don't trust Obama because he is an Arab" or who listen to Sarah slander the man's record and name for her lack of conscience, like a puppet or parrot.
It would be no surprise to see the RNC claim fraud and try to run it to the Supreme Court, believing they own it.
One old lady says that and you think the whole party beleives that. There are ignorant people on both sides. I see alot of it on this site.
This is the reason that we need to "freeze-frame" the polls daily from here on out. And we need to pay attention to exit polls.
If the mcCainites try to trot out this as a "reason" that Obama wins, then we have to ensure that the polls back up what happens on Nov. 4. That is why a huge margin in the polls is so important.
Remember that if Bush had won the popular vote and hadn't been so close in the electoral college, we would have never known about the Florida debaucle.
That is why it is so IMPORTANT for people in red states to go vote anyway!!! We have to shore up the popular votes and the polling %.
right. confidence will kill the democrats. the vote difference has to be too great to fix. Bush was so sure of the 2006 election because of his confidence in his party's vote-fixing methods, but landslides made the difference.
VOTE! and check on your voter registration IN ADVANCE! in fact, if your state gives you the ability to vote IN ADVANCE, do so--you will either avoid the fixes or find them out ahead of time.
How can we possibly expect any fairness at all? For cryiing out loud, Bush's BROTHER was in charge of Florida. No election commission in the world would have ratified that election..
Thank you for your update on the ACORN situation, it is highly probable that the Left will use voter fraud as an ace in the hole. How could Obama possibly win over McCain and the wholesome Palin famil; after all, Obama is Black and McCain is White and that is the real problem.
Once again, conservatives have a problem w/his socialistic and redistribution support, not the color of his skin or his religion..
You sound so silly ADAPA. I'm sorry- but I refuse to vote on the basis of race- and being black isn't the sole qualification for being president. With your line of thinking, I can just say that you are sexist b/c you aren't voting for McCain/Palin- she's a woman and Biden is a man- after all. Or you should claim that anyone who didn't vote for Lieberman in his Senatorial election must be anti-semitic (...Jesse Jackson himself recently said that Obama woud offer less support to the state of Israel. ) The real problem is that Obama doesn't have a substantive record that supports his grandiose claims.
Just for your general knowledge, did you know that Martin Luther King was a Republican?
if acorn is doing their job verifying then how do they explain one guy registering and then having it submitted 73 times? it might get the type of voter Obama is seeking in some areas but the stink is smelly in so many other areas he needs to win
As the piece explains, ACORN has to submit all of the forms it receives--by law. Even those it has discovered to be fraudulent. And, so, they flag bogus forms as such.
73 times, huh? Citation please.
First of all, I think the article said that ACORN had to submit the registration for by law regardless. If it was a fraud it would theoretically get picked up. Secondly 73 or 400 votes are not going to sway an election. You are going to need millions.
but if BO wins in the landslide that he currently has in the polls, how can there be an argument? They would have to suggest that anywhere from 5-10% of all voters were fraudulent. Let's hope the Bradley effect doesn't come into play (which I still think it will), or we could have a battle on our hands reminiscent of not only 1960, but 2000 as well!
"we could have a battle on our hands reminiscent of not only 1960, but 2000 as well!"
More like 2000 x Diebold x 1 BushAdmin DOJ (1 Rove loaded Civil Rights Division + 1 Prosecutor Purge) + + 1 H.R. 3295/Help America Vote Act + 8 (more years of Fix News) =
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