ACORN

[protect our future]

For those of you doing canvassing, someone somewhere is going to want to discuss ACORN, especially the charge that ACORN is "committing fraud" in Kansas City. Here's some info:



The Voter Fraud Lie: ACORN Fights Back
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008104110/voter-fraud-lie-acorn-fights-back

Fact: ACORN has implemented the most sophisticated quality-control system in the voter engagement field, but in almost every state we are required to turn in ALL completed applications, even the ones we know to be problematic.

Fact: ACORN flags incomplete, problem, or suspicious cards when we turn them in, but these warnings are often ignored by election officials. Often these same officials then come back weeks or months later and accuse us of deliberately turning in phony cards.

Fact: Our canvassers are paid by the hour, not by the card, so there is NO incentive for them to falsify cards. ACORN has a zero-tolerance policy for deliberately falsifying registrations, and in the relatively rare cases where our internal quality controls have identified this happening we have fired the workers involved and turned them in to election officials and law-enforcement.

Fact: No charges have ever been brought against ACORN itself. Convictions against individual former ACORN workers have been accomplished with our full cooperation, using the evidence obtained through our quality control and verification processes.

Fact: Voter fraud by individuals is extremely rare, and incredibly difficult. There has never been a single proven case of anyone, anywhere, casting an illegal vote as a result of a phony voter registration. Even if someone wanted to influence the election this way, it would not work.

Fact: Most election officials have recognized ACORN's good work and praised our quality control systems. Even in the cities where election officials have complained about ACORN, the applications in question represent less than 1% of the thousands and thousands of registrations ACORN has collected.

Fact: Our accusers not only fail to provide any evidence, they fail to suggest a motive: there is virtually no chance anyone would be able to vote fraudulently, so there is no reason to deliberately submit phony registrations. ACORN is committed to ensuring that the greatest possible numbers of people are registered and allowed to vote, so there is also NO incentive to "disrupt the system" with phony cards.

Fact: Similar accusations were made, and attacks launched, against ACORN and other voter registration organizations in 2004 and 2006. These attacks were not only groundless, they have since been exposed as part of the U.S. Attorney-gate scandal and revealed to be part of a systematic partisan agenda of voter suppression.

ACORN Long a Target of GOP Operatives
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0810/S00146.htm

Related: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6480
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6493
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6488
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6473
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6465

WSJ's Fund falsely claimed that ACORN "almost got a slush fund in the housing bailout bill"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200810100008

Right Wing Rages Against New Voter Registrations:
The 'Purpose' Of ACORN Is To Commit 'Voter Fraud'
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/10/acorn-reaction/

Misleading, Unsubstantiated 'Fox & Friends' Conversation on the GOP's ACORN
'Voter Fraud' Nonsense in NV and MO, Offered to Media, Public, Without Comment...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6487

States' Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?hp

Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times. ...

...because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year, according to state election officials, any heightened screening of new applications may affect their party's supporters disproportionately. ...

Related: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6490
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6453

'Barack Osama' appears on hundreds of absentee ballots in New York.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/10/obama-osama-ballot/
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6496