ACORN Controversy: Fraud, Or Foolishness?

Despite GOP Charges Against Community Group Over Registrations, Experts Say Voter Fraud Is Extremely Rare

(AP)  The stories are almost comical: Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, registered to vote on Nov. 4. The entire starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team, signed up to go the polls - in Nevada.

But no one in either presidential campaign is laughing. Not publicly, anyway.

Republicans, led by John McCain, are alleging widespread voter fraud. The Democrats and Barack Obama say the controversy is preposterous and is just political mudslinging.

In the middle is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN, a grass-roots community group that has led liberal causes since it formed in 1970. This year, ACORN hired more than 13,000 part-time workers and sent them out in 21 states to sign up voters in minority and poor neighborhoods.

They submitted 1.3 million registration cards to local election officials.

Along the way, bogus ones appeared - signed in the names of cartoon characters, professional football players and scores of others bearing the same handwriting. And in the past few days, those phony registrations have exploded into Republican condemnations of far-ranging misconduct, and a relatively obscure community activist group took a starring role, right behind Joe the Plumber, in the final presidential debate.

Looking beyond the smoke and fire, the raging argument boils down to essentially this:

Is ACORN, according to McCain, perpetuating voter fraud that could be "destroying the fabric of democracy"? Or are Republicans trying to keep the disadvantaged, who tend to be Democrats, from casting ballots in a hotly contested presidential race that has drawn record numbers of new voters?

By legal definition, to commit voter fraud means a person would have to present some kind of documentation at the polls - a driver's license, a phone bill or another form of ID - that bears the name of Mickey Mouse, for example. To do so risks a fine and imprisonment under state laws.

Submitting fake registration cards is another matter. Local law enforcement agencies in about a dozen states are investigating fake registrations submitted by ACORN workers. Late last week, The Associated Press reported the FBI will be reviewing those cases.

Accusations of stolen votes have a long history in presidential elections. In the 2000 recount debacle, Republicans claimed illegal ballots were cast. Democrats contended that legal ballots were thrown out. In 2004, when Ohio gave the presidency to George W. Bush, Democrats charged that long lines and malfunctioning machines in that state led to an inaccurate count.

But in this contest, involving the first African-American in American history with a real chance at becoming president, the vitriol is particularly pointed.

"This is all just one big head-fake," said Tova Wang of the government watchdog group Common Cause. "What silliness this is, at this point. It's all about creating this perception that there is a tremendous problem with voter fraud in this country, and it's not true."

On Friday, during a campaign appearance, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin repeated McCain's recent claims that Obama has close ties to ACORN.

"You deserve to know," Palin told thousands in a park north of Cincinnati. "This group needs to learn that you here in Ohio won't let them turn the Buckeye State into the Acorn State."

Obama helped represent ACORN in a successful 1995 suit against the state of Illinois, which forced enactment of the so-called motor-voter law, making it easier for people to register vote. Obama said this week that he had "nothing to do with" ACORN's massive voter registration drive.

ACORN spokesman Brian Kettenring retaliated this week in a series of conference calls and interviews. "What we're seeing is the manufacture of a crisis, and attempts to smear Sen. Obama with it. It gives you an excuse should you lose or if there's a contested outcome of the election."

Voter fraud is rare in the United States, according to a 2007 report by the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. Based on reviews of voter fraud claims at the federal and state level, the center's report asserted most problems were caused by things like technological glitches, clerical errors or mistakes made by voters and by election officials.

"It is more likely that an individual will be struck by lightning than he will impersonate another voter at the polls," the report said.

Alex Keyssar, a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, calls the current controversy "chapter 22 in a drama that's been going on awhile. The pattern is that nothing much ever comes from this. There have been no known cases of people voting fraudulently."

"What we've seen," Keyssar said, "is sloppiness and someone's idea of a stupid joke, like registering as Donald Duck."

ACORN officials have repeatedly claimed that their own quality control workers were the first to discover problematic ballots. In every state investigating bad registrations, ACORN tipped off local officials to bogus or incomplete cards, spokesman Kettenring said.

Many states require that all registrations be submitted to local voting officials so that election directors are in charge of vetting problem ballots, not the groups collecting them.

Part-time ACORN workers receive one day of training and are paid $8 an hour to collect signatures, according to Kettenring. He blamed bogus cards on cheating and lazy employees trying to make a buck for doing nothing.

When caught, Kettenring said, those workers are fired. The group is in the process of tallying the number of bad cards ACORN flagged for election officials, he said. Kettenring said he doubted the percentage of such registrations would reach 2 percent.

But Republicans say any number of fake registrations is unacceptable and could affect the November election.

Signing up voters is a small part of ACORN activities. The group frequently leads challenges to minimum wage laws, predatory mortgage lending in poor and working-class neighborhoods and immigration policies.

Controversy is nothing new. Its leaders are currently locked in a legal dispute stemming from allegations that the brother of the group's founder misappropriated nearly $1 million of the nonprofit's money several years ago.

Since the 2004 election, ex-employees have been convicted of submitting false registrations in states including Florida and Missouri.

"There are certainly problems and I don't think anyone disagrees on that," said Wang of Common Cause. "But it doesn't get reported that ACORN finds these registrations errors themselves. They flag them as being no good, but they have to turn them in anyway."

"They don't get processed," she said. "And Mickey Mouse is not going to vote."

[misha128-2009]

California arrests GOP Operative for Voter Registration fraud for attempting to register himself at two addresses.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sto
ries/2008/10/20/national/main4532113.sht
ml

Posted by misha128 at 09:38 PM

The same company is responsible for switching party registrations and apparently generating absentee ballot requests unknown to voters.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fraud18-2008oct18,0,1216330.story

[misha128-2009]

California arrests GOP Operative for Voter Registration fraud for attempting to register himself at two addresses.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/20/national/main4532113.shtml

[candy-apple]

A simple solution to the whole problem is to require PICTURE IDENTIFICATION when one goes to vote. If you can''t prove who you are you ''re not allowed to vote.
Since you''re required to have a state issued ID for everything else in your life, why not when you vote?

[sbelknap01]

In a ''free'' nation where most people who are qualified to vote don''t bother to do so, I find it unlikely that very many people feel so motivated that they will risk fine and imprisonment to vote twice. Sadly, I think that the terror of the underclass voting scares the dickens out of the GOP, not exactly the ''party of the working poor''. The very idea that millions of single mothers will stop off to vote between their day job and their evening job rather than eating dinner terrifies the McCain candidacy. People who, four years ago, could not name the two candidates for president, this year got registered and are (for the first time in decades) going to VOTE. And I helped register them! Bush was the last president who could safely ignore them and I find that hopeful. Look for McCain/Palin to continue to do everything in their power to discourage newly registered people from voting. Bring it on!

[dowjones20k]

This is the second article I have seen (the first was by AP)that conveniently leaves out campaign contributions to this group.


Interesting how the report dismisses the fact that the Obama campaign gave $832,000 to the ACORN organization ...

not to mention the fact that voter registration fraud is a felony offense ... and the inference that no fraud has taken place is a lie .... as yes indeed there have been dead voters and convicted felons who have voted in prior elections, so that position is untennable.

CBS seems to be in the tank for Obama or the democrats in general .. once this party has control of all three branches of government maybe then the media will report truthfully .. but it will be too late ...

Sad Sad state of politics and the ignorant citizenry we have digressed too....

[misha128-2009]

Maybe if ACORN hired UNION workers, then they would have a qualified work force...LMMFAO!!!


Posted by pelosilover at 03:26 AM

Keep insulting the voters -- it makes the canvassing job easier.

[obriann]

This is exactly the type of reporting necessary to maintain a successful democracy. The last 8-10 years of political reporting (and EDITING) has resulted in the current socio-political (financial, political, military, and so on...) fiasco. But articles like this, that fairly compare both sides of an issue, regardless of who brought up to topic (John McCain - Joe the Plumber, the media - ACORN) allow Americans to learn the details and truth behind each story. Multiple researchers, and multiple perpectives (from multiple outlets/networks), and which are presented in a truly balanced public forum by a well-trained and disciplined journalist produces the information the citizens need to make the right election day decision.

Great run of stories...

[wherenextnow]

Posted by chad55555 at 07:54 AM : Oct 19, 2008
------

Say what you want, but its all bullshhit. The only people who believe it are the last desperate Jesus Nutballs who are watching the dream of forcing Evangelicalism down America''s throat.

[chad55555]

Say what ever you want,you know he was part of it,and you know he is a trained Muslim,and their religion teaches them to hate christians,Muslim religion teaches whites are of the devil and must be destroyed.YOU CAN''T CHANGE THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF TEACHING AND HISTORY,THEN ASK YOURSELF WHERE ALL HIS MONEY IS COMMING FROM(HE"S ABLE TO OUT SPEND ANYBODY IN HISTORY) HOW !!.IF YOU STILL CAN"T ADD 2+2 THEM YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH. I HOPE I AM WRONG BUT HISTORY AND THE NATURE OF MAN TELLS THE TRUE STORY. MAYBE HE IS THE PUNISHMENT FOR AMERICA FOR TURNING OUR BACKS ON OUR CHRISTIAN GOD.

[wheelofvoter]

Someone please discuss evidence of Mickey Mouse ACTUALLY voting. Plenty of phoney registrations are submitted every year by Republicans, stoners, pranksters trying to disparage the process so they can make these fraud claims or laugh. ACORN blew the whistle on suspicious ones themselves for further investigations. The closest I have heard of any of these phoney registrants actually having the balls to show up and cast their illegal vote was Anne Coulter who tried to vote in a county she did not live--a felony.

[wherenextnow]

This Campaign by the Republican''''''''s may well go down in history as the dirtiest, most divisive and most disgusting in OUR HISTORY!

Posted by irmcvet97

You make an inflamatory statement without anything to support it. This renders your statement worthless. Try again with a little more effort to support your accusations.

Posted by rhs648 at 07:20 AM : Oct 19, 2008
-------

He''s taking from the Republican Play Book. "I''m Republican, I say it, it must be true!"

Iraq Has WMD!
Obama is a Muslim!

[rhs648]

This Campaign by the Republican''''s may well go down in history as the dirtiest, most divisive and most disgusting in OUR HISTORY!

Posted by irmcvet97

You make an inflamatory statement without anything to support it. This renders your statement worthless. Try again with a little more effort to support your accusations.

[irmcvet97]

Maybe if ACORN hired UNION workers, then they would have a qualified work force...LMMFAO!!!


Posted by pelosilover at 03:26 AM : Oct 19, 2008

Duh?? Did you just get out of th 6th grade? LOL ANY MORON with at least that much education KNOWS that ALL major Unions have their OWN Voter Registration People! But hey this level of uneducated drivel is what we''ve come to expect of Neocon''s.

[irmcvet97]

This Campaign by the Republican''s may well go down in history as the dirtiest, most divisive and most disgusting in OUR HISTORY!

[indepedent01]

IF YOU VOTED FOR ''W. BUSH'' TWICE, THEN YOUR OPINION IS NOT CREDIBLE.

Think about it. It is bad enough that you didn''t see Bush''s incompetence prior to his first term, but to repeat in 2004 your voting mistake in light of clear evidence of Bush''s poor judgment is a wretched shame! And now you two-time Bush-backers have the audacity to pen your opinions on this commentary in support of a FAR WORST presidential ticket than Bush-Cheney. McCain-Palin is so pathetically worst than Bush-Cheney, that if Obama-Biden were not an available option, I would write-in Bush-Cheney for another 4 years.

YOU TWO-TIME BUSH-BACKERS HAVE NO CREDIBILITY ON THIS COMMENTARY. IT IS BETTER THAT YOU SAVE YOUR DIGNITY THAN TRY TO PROVIDE ANOTHER OPINION.

GOD Bless the United States of America!
GOD Bless the Obama-Biden Leadership Team!

[indepedent01]

IF YOU VOTED FOR ''W. BUSH'' TWICE, THEN YOUR OPINION IS NOT CREDIBLE. Think about it.

It is bad enough that you didn''t see Bush''s incompetence prior to his first term, but to repeat in 2004 your voting mistake in light of clear evidence of Bush''s poor judgment is a wretched shame! And now you two-time Bush-backers have the audacity to pen your opinions on this commentary in support of a FAR WORST presidential ticket than Bush-Cheney. McCain-Palin is so pathetically worst than Bush-Cheney, that if Obama-Biden were not an available option, I would write-in Bush-Cheney for another 4 years.

YOU TWO-TIME BUSH-BACKERS HAVE NO CREDIBILITY ON THIS COMMENTARY. IT IS BETTER THAT YOU SAVE YOUR DIGNITY THAN TRY TO PROVIDE ANOTHER OPINION.

[mainecoonrud]

How come ACORN was a great hard working group when the Republicans used them and are frauds when they are working for the Democrats? I''m guessing they''re the same, the Republican perception is what is different.

[bonddouble07]

The repugs wish it was voter fraud! The repugs are the biggest fraud!

[mkcscbs]

There are a ton of measures in place to prevent voter fraud. You are much more likely to have your vote fraudulently thrown out than fradulently cast.

[dianaclary]

Voter registration and voter fraud should be a concern for all Americans regardless of your political bent.