Thursday, October 16, 2008

Viral It: The Truth About ACORN

I think we saw the first salvo last night that will become an attempt to delegitimize Obama's upcoming presidency, at least among McCain's unswerving base. So let's get the truth out there and spread it around.

Here's the deal: ACORN is not trying to steal the vote for Obama.

* The only fraud committed was against ACORN itself. ACORN hired 13,000 workers to register a remarkable 1.3 million new voters. And a few of them turned in registration forms with inaccurate and even made-up names to get credit for work they didn't do. ACORN fired them and turned them over to the authorities.
"The Truth About ACORN's Voter Registration Drives,"
http://acorn.org/quickfacts

"Group Answers Charges of Voter Registration Fraud," New York Times, October 14, 2008
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/acorn/

* ACORN reported the fraudulent registration forms. In most states, ACORN is required by law to submit all forms collected whether they appear to be bogus or not—that way election officials, not partisan groups, can make the call. ACORN flags cards that may not be legitimate. And in many places, the charges of fraud only came up because ACORN was the one who flagged the cards!
"Voter Group Admits Mistakes, Defends Work," ABC News, October 14, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=31241&id=14429-6672261-LU6AT3x&t=5

"Is there ACORN fraud in Florida?," Orlando Sentinel, October 15, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=31239&id=14429-6672261-LU6AT3x&t=6

* This won't have any impact on the election. No one is allowed to vote unless they are properly registered. And there is no evidence of false registrations actually leading to organized voting fraud.
"'Fraud' vs. 'Suppression'," Politico, October 14, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=31240&id=14429-6672261-LU6AT3x&t=7

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your last point is the most important. When all is said and done, voter registration fraud is a far cry from voting fraud.

Bruce Cordell said...

Yeah, you're right, this kind of buries the lede, eh?