Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiThe Truth About ACORN's Voter Registration Drive
Election Day is less than a month away, and our efforts to make sure that low-income and minority voters have a voice and vote on November 4th are in full swing. Unfortunately, just as we've seen in previous election cycles, the more success we have in empowering these voters, the more attacks we have to fend off from partisan forces making unfounded accusations to disparage our work and help maintain the status quo of an unbalanced electorate. We want to take this opportunity to separate the facts of our successes from the falsehoods of our attackers.
On Monday, October 6, as voter registration deadlines passed in most states, ACORN completed the largest, most successful nonpartisan voter registration drive in history. In partnership with the nonpartisan organization Project Vote, we helped register over 1.3 million low-income, minority, and young voters in a total of 21 states. Highlights of this success include:
We collected over 151,000 registrations in Florida, 153,000 in Pennsylvania, 215,000 in Michigan, and nearly 250,000 in Ohio.
An estimated 60-70 percent of our applicants are people of color.
At least HALF of all are registrations are from young people between 18-29.
We are proud of this unprecedented success, and grateful to everyone who supported us in this massive effort, from our funders and partners to the literally thousands of hardworking individuals across the country who dedicated themselves to the cause and conducted the difficult work of registering 1.3 million Americans, one voter at a time.
And this work is far from over: now begins our effort mobilize these new voters around local and national issues, getting them to the polls and helping to channel their commitment and conviction into an ongoing movement for change in our communities.
As The Nation pointed out recently, ACORN's success in registering millions of low-income and minority voters has made it "something of a right-wing bogeyman." Though ACORN believes that the right to vote is not, and should never be, a partisan issue, attacks from groups threatened by our historic success continue to come, motivated by partisan politics and often perpetuated by the media without full investigation of the facts. As a result, there have been a few recent stories about investigations of former ACORN workers for turning in incomplete, erroneous, or fraudulent voter registration applications. Predictably, partisan forces have tried to use these isolated incidents to incite fear of the "bogeyman" of "widespread voter fraud." But we want to take this opportunity to set the record straight and tell you a few facts to show how these incidents really exemplify everything that ACORN is doing right:
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. Attorneygate scandal and revealed to be part of a systematic partisan agenda of voter suppression.
These are the facts, and the truth is that a relatively small group of political operatives are trying to orchestrate hysteria about "voter fraud" and manufacture public outrage that they can use to further suppress the votes of millions of low-income and minority Americans.
These tactics are nothing new, and history has shown that they will come to nothing. We'll continue to weather the storm, as we've done for years, and we'll continue to share the truth about our work and express pride about our accomplishments.
Most importantly, we want to assure you that this good work continues, unabated and undeterred. ACORN will not be intimidated, we will not be provoked, and in this important moment in history we will not allow anyone to distract us from these vital efforts to empower our constituencies and our communities to speak for themselves. If the partisan political machines are afraid of low-income and minority voters, they're going to have to do a lot better than coming after ACORN.
After all, there are now at least 1.3 million more of them, and they will not be silenced. They're taking an interest, and taking a stand, and they'll be taking their concerns to the voting booth in November.
And ACORN will be here, to make sure that the voices of these Americans are heard, on Election Day and for every day to come.
85 Comments so far
Show AllI daydreamed receiving the following email from the Republican Party:
"My friends,
We apologize for falsely insinuating that ACORN was committing voter fraud.
In reality, their canvassers could turn in a million fake registrations and yet it would not create a single illegitimate vote.
It's simple: First, each registration is cross-checked by the registrar, and second, matching identification is required at the polls. If by accident Mickey Mouse's application would not be tossed right away it would still take a miracle for the mouse to show up at the polling station, ID in hand.
We propagated this obvious nonsense because we're now certain that we'll lose this election. Rather than admit that our policies and our candidates failed to convince Americans we figured we'd instead claim that ACORN and the evil Democrats stole the election. Unfortunately, too many voters were able to put two and two together and called our bluff.
But let bygones be bygones - I hope you'll trust us again in 2012. Keep us tuned on Fox News!
Sincerely,
John McCain and Sarah Palin
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Let's elect Obama and support Progressive Democrats of America http://pdamerica.org to convince him that progressive policies make sense and resonate with people's ultimate desire for peace, sustainability, and responsible economics.
sign this petition to require a photo id to vote in this election:
http://www.rallycongress.com/voterid/1326/emergency-voter-identification/
Ok, this was much needed from ACORN.
Now, ACORN, do the next step. Respond to the Republican attacks on CRA, the Community Reinvestment Act, (Carter/Clinton) which they falsely claim requires banks to make bad loans. Republicans have their false info all out there. It's time to catch up.
Fortunately the Boston Globe Editorial, "Subprime Scapegoats" got posted at Common dreams.
I've always wondered how people could fraudulently vote? The volunteers have to check your name against names they have in a book. At least that's how they do it here.
But look at who ACORN is getting registered. Blacks, poor people, youth. The elites don't want people like that voting because they know they won't vote for elite interests and pro-elite candidates.
I'm worried about PES and their electronic voting machines. Way too easy to rig. No paper trail.
After an early Sunday morning with programming driven by neo-cons, C-SPAN at mid-Sunday morning hosted Bertha Lewis, interim chief organizer at ACORN, who was allowed by C-SPAN to be verbally assaulted by two neo-con attack puppies, Chris Good (sic.) of "The Hill" and Alexander Burns (sic.) of "Politico." Intent upon continuing the Right's doubly mendacious charges against ACORN of everything from embezzlement to voter fraud, the attack puppies revealed their insistence on lying and twisting and inventing "truths" but to no surprise to MS. Lewis who defended herself and ACORN with cheerful, honest truth. Like good neo-cons, the puppies insisted on their ACORN bombing with lies. No surprise though: "The Hill" pretends to be cleaner than "Politico" and ends up being just a little subtler in its attack on progressive ideas and organizations. "Politico" is much less covert when it advertises for prospective employees and lets out that Politico employers are very enthusiastic about faith-based believers as employees. While hardly deceiving anyone with their foxy claims their "newspapers" (sic.) reveal more abut them than those they attack with untruths, sardonic smiles and the illusion of gentility. Not minding false tales, the puppies succeed only in revealing who they really are.
Stranger things have happened than the possibility that the radicals within the Republican Party may have planted people among the ACORN workers in order to help discredit the organization.
I was once heavily involved with the upper reaches of the Republican Party and dropped away from the party when just this sort of thing started being discussed after former CIA Director and then Vice President George H. W. Bush started "helping" with suggestions about ways to discredit the Democrats.
Methods like this had been used by the agency when using disinformation and dirty tricks to discredit foreign leaders like Allende of Chile.
Doesn't ACORN have someone who can go on FIXED NOISE, er, I mean, Fox News, to rebut the ridiculous charges? No one trained in public relations?
Any why are all the Democrats who go on cable and listen to the Republicans attack you, speechless? Don't they get your faxes, emails and phone calls?
Barack Obama was for single payer before he came out against it.
What ACORN's doing waste of time. Voting in America doesn't count, it never did.
There'll always be a Secretary of State at the end changing the totals to favor their candidate, all they need is 5 minutes and a computer. Look at Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.
Not to mention that the choices given to voters are always of a Democrat and a Republican anyway, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, so the odds against the voters are unsurpassable.
Read the Chomsky article on the main page: "progressive legislation and social welfare have been won by popular struggles, not gifts from above. Those struggles follow a cycle of success and setback. They must be waged every day, not just once every four years, always with the goal of creating a genuinely responsive democratic society, from the voting booth to the workplace."
Elections are a waste of time.
Don't quote Chomsky against elections. Re read the article. Note that it does make a difference who you vote for.
Chomsky said that change comes from the bottom, not elections. Simple, what can't you understand?
If elections are a waste of time, then why vote for Nader? Sure, he's a great guy and I love his ideas but in politics, you got to play dirty to win. Obama learned that lesson from Reagan, Bush I and II, Clinton, and even Gore and Kerry. If you want a Nader presidency or the likes, why not help out by first reforming Congress?
Dodger Dave
What a sign of the times,when this hardy group of community organizers,operating in the small space allowed for their activities,is the one group which feels the need to provide full disclosure of its activities- the charge of voter fraud is absurd on its face,and we have fredo gonzalez and his politicized doj to thank for it-and we would do so,if we could find him,huh? the last time was questioned under oath he took full resposibility for having turned over doj to a bunch of smug,starry eyed kids from a law school/bible colege down in va somewhere.one of the callow young'uns nearly gave the game away in front of the senate judiciary committee-blabbed how she "might have crossed a line", on usas who wouldn't trump up voter fraud indictments.looked like perjury city until the next atty gen opined that "not all illegality is criminal."under these circumstances perhaps acorn will feel safe in finally admitting that a rogue group of its hourly employees kidnapped the lindbergh baby.but they had trouble with its care,feeding,and spelling.
Last night my boss phoned me and asked if I had ever heard of ACORN. He was watching CNN and when he tried to explain what the "news" was, it took about 5 minutes of question and answer to figure out that this was another Rovian attack on one of the better community organizers (in the Saul Aulinsky---Chicago-based---tradition).
Here is one crux of the problem: The Grand Old Potty tries to suppress the VOTE, while the Dems and everybody else try to get people interested in voting. It is to this day still a GOP canard that the only reason JFK won in 1960 was that Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago delivered votes of people registered from graveyards, for God's sake (and then, at a higher order of extremist magnitude, Jimmy Hoffa of the Teamsters was exterminated because he threatened to spill the beans...).
There is another aspect to this. Most poll-workers and local registrars are elderly and retired and they do their jobs out of a combination of a love for Democracy, the per diem pay they receive (which aint much) and sometimes out of a partisan desire for an outcome. They sit in chairs in middle school gyms or churches, etc. and they process a bunch of paperwork. This year, it would appear that, as a result of ACORN as well as a grass roots appeal, there may be the highest number of new voters in history. As in 2004, local voting systems may be overwhelmed and many will break down and the Media as in 2004 will cover up the breakdowns as they did esp. in Ohio, where the state's Secretary of State---in charge of Ohio's election process---was also the leading light of the Re-elect Bush campaign, a blatant and CRIMINAL conflict of interest. His name is J. Kenneth Blackwell. He should be in jail, but instead Ohio voters in 2006 just sort of swept the GOP out of administrative offices and voted in Democrats who have been trying to clean up the mess ever since. (In this offering I do not wish to get into the issue of paperless voting machines...!)
What troubles me as an old man in the current context is that my daughter's generation and beyond know NOTHING about the history here, such as Watergate and Nixon's Dirty Tricks and his Enemies List, all of which are the historic root of the Bush regime and by extension the potential McCain regime because many of the same people in play then are in play now. Read "All the President's Men." It is so 1970s but the same people it mentions are still out there creating havoc.
"You want Truth? You can't stand the Truth!" The GOPs (a word, not an acronym) seek to suppress the vote because they represent the Oligarchy. Nearly everyone else wants you to VOTE VOTE VOTE---your conscience, your gut, your instinct, your stupidity, your prejudices, your grandmother's memory of the last Great Depression, etc. Just fucking VOTE. If you do not VOTE, you are a traitor to Democracy, which gave you the only chance in history to transcend the innane. Short of your being a literary. Or an inventor. Have you invented anything lately? A better GOP-trap perhaps? Thought not. When was the last time you wrote a poem?
The "System" is totally broken, McCain plays responsible while Palin is creaming in her pants. She has out-Hillaried Hillary, which is why Hillary if she is campaigning for Obama we have heard nothing about.
Entropy now prevails. Structured markets will take years to re-create if at all. We are governed by idiots in the classical sense. Take Pelosi, Please. After 1996 the Dems blew it when they had the chance. They ran on Populism and then they caved. I live in Indiana and a red state and in a highly red county. Indiana is now in play. I will be voting Obama, NOT for the Dems, but because I SUSPECT that he transcends both his party and the times. Meanwhile, no matter what I do, I expect to be disappointed, because as George Soros just told Charlie Rose, he has no answers.
Anyone have any answers???
-30-
Great Post OleMan but do you remember how the Dems ran populist in 96?
Just curious if you could give your perspective from a red state. I grew up in Ct and was in NY at the time and would love to hear your point of view.
Thanks.
To me, this ACORN incident is indicative of how easy it is to spread misinformation, and how long it sometimes takes even for readers of Commondreams and Truthout etc who are actively looking for such information, to get concise refutations.
I sometimes thing it should be easier to figure out what is propaganda and what isn't.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Let's elect Obama and support Progressive Democrats of America http://pdamerica.org to convince him that progressive policies make sense and resonate with people's ultimate desire for peace, sustainability, and responsible economics.
The fact the writers leave out is that paying for registrations have blown up their faces before, yet they were foolish enough to do it over again, even though their fraudulent registrations are the one shred of reality-based assertions in conservatives' voter fraud campaign. Fraudulent registrations in 2004 are why those of us who volunteer to register voters have to be careful to promptly turn them in, or we're risking a felony. ACORN had to know conservatives were ready to jump on them if they paid for any fraudulent registrations, and if they didn't know, they have no business engaging in politics.
What ACORN has done is handed a gift to the nutcase talk radio right by giving them a means to undermine Obama's legitimacy and pass registration laws intended to suppress turnout. As someone concerned with election reform issues, I'm mad as hell at ACORN for being so stupid. I say that fully aware of the good they've done helping low income people with housing issues, and recognizing the good impulses behind registering voters. I even accept as facts the assertions in the article. Nonetheless, ACORN is worth several Limbaughs in terms of the damage they've done. As overblown as the right's charges are and as false as the claims of voter fraud are, I wish ACORN would disappear.
Sure you would. That way you don't have to expend any energy.
Considering the actual cause for two of the US Attorney firings was their reluctance to undertake frivolous prosecution of ACORN as political harassment; it is no surprise that those left in the Justice Department are hopping to or face termination. Republican vote suppression is a 21st Century version of the Poll Tax, and this shameful abuse of taxpayer $ is merely another crime committed by the lackeys of the Bush Crime Family.
HEAR,HEAR for acorn!!! As a little non scientific poll of registered voters l suggest all those who believe in Barack Obama's vision, character, and plans for this country drive during the day with their headlights on and all those McCain supporters drive at night with their headlights off.
very funny and kind of symbolic.
Here is my take on the infamous screwing in of the light bulb joke.
How many republicans does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
answer:3
2 to hold you down and one to shove it up your ass.
That to me sums up most republicans, meaning the voters, not the politicians. They are bullies. They used to have the excuse of stuff like "less government", "isolationist", "conservation", now all that is off the table and yes some have become Libertarian but they are not so much better at spreading the wealth around. To me it is racism, or just all around hating othersism. They lose me at we love Jesus but hate the poor.
Fox is all over Acorn, like rabid squirrels. Anything to try and steer the vote in the swing states. What will Fox do in a Democratic administration. Well, they certainly wont be as patriotic as they were. They will go back to bashing the democrats.
I do think both sides are guilty of trying not to build too much consensus. That is a shame.
George Will is in serious need of a wedgie. He had some quote about how "some" people are not smart enough to vote. Really George, lets have an IQ test to see who can vote. Better yet, let's just have the smartest guy in the country decide everything. It is not the people with less brains that scare me, it is the people with no heart.
The Obama lending lawsuit story (Snow wolf earlier) is making the neocon wannabe rounds. Does anyone know the actual scope of that thing? Chicago, regional, nationwide? At least some of the borrowers got in over their heads, much as many thousands of homeowners are now.
Of course, Fox News would have us believe a redlining lawsuit in Chicago some years ago has brought down the entire financial world. That Barack HUSSEIN guy is EVIL!
Call me oldfashioned, but I tend to believe people who sign things they write with names like Bertha Lewis and Steve Kest more than I do people who sign things they write with names like wanger22, justme13, or monkeyman.
I think I wrote that myself once upon a time here at Crunchy Donuts, home of fascist trolls, rascist neoliberals and my very big favorite, rascist, fascist progressives. Hear that howling, screaming noise? That's them.
Here's a basic rule to learn.
If the corporate media is attacking a group, that means that group is probably the 'good guys'. Especially if its Faux News, but it holds true for pretty much all American corporate media.
The corporate media is going to help, support and praise people and groups who help maintain corporate rule in this country. The corporate media is going to attack any people or groups that are organizing against corporate power.
Just the basic fact that the corporate media is attacking ACORN should make anyone to the left of Ronald Reagan give ACORN a big attaboy, and probably give them a contribution.
Learn who your enemies are, and who your friends are. When your enemies are attacking a person or a group, that means they might be your friends.
The one thing no one should care about or even listen to is the details of the attack. Who cares? How many lies has the corporate media told? Ooops, that's one of those questions that probably sends a super-computer into meltdown by making it calculate infinity. Just know that they lie to you. And if they are attacking someone, then you should check them out and see who they really are.
Easy rule to learn. If you see someone being attacked by this scum, go find out who they are and what they are really doing. They are probaby a friend.
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
Off topic, but I wanted to tell you that I live in Texas and we were talking about the wetlands. Houston is not in the wetlands. Just to clear that up.
More?
Huh? WTF? What is this article bout? Your private conversation? What is that big ol' bay there, dry?:) And you know that water went on up into good ole Sam's namesake as easy as, well... easy for a ways.
Details, details! Its just not on the coast! Not wetlands area for sure.
My maps show wetlands everywhere but downtown!:)
Lookie there at all tose byjous, wat dat? Privatized by Bushie when he was guvenur?
Sorry, I just needed a good laugh.
Give me one "conservative" organization that has done a better job at getting more people the power and motivation to vote. Don't get me wrong. ACORN would be better off empowering 3rd parties but I have yet to see a "conservative" organization anywhere as helpful as ACORN in helping people cut through the bureaucratic red tape out there to vote. Any person or organization that actually serves the public interest and not the corporate interests is always prone to persecution. That is why America is getting itself flushed down the toilet.
FACT Tony Rezko is singing like a canary to the Feds, ACORN is under criminal investigation in 15 states for voter fraud and the tally is climbing. Expect Obama to be thrown under the bus for suing Lenders into making questionable loans whuch caused the housing market collapse
Snowflake,
Take your repug lies and go somewhere to melt away into your oblivion.
You can't throw the new President under the Bus! He has won. Its done.
You may be right about it being done...but if so he will be under a cloud of suspicion/indictment from day one...
and unlike the butterfly ballot fiasco there will be lots of fodder...besides..McCain can still turn it around...Gore was ahead of Bush at 2000 and Kerry also...the polls will tighten just before election...they always do
I'm not so sure about that. In 2000 and 2004, Gore and Kerry were barely ahead at best in the polls. Obama's pretty much safe at this point and he has plenty of room for error that he'll win. Hell, if the black voter turnout in the Southern states turn up unexpectedly higher than in previous elections, states like GA and LA will be swing states. The GOP needs to take time off and change its ways. Their Nixon/Raygun ideology is what gave this party a bad name in the first place. Palin is looking more like Nixon these days and Mccain is getting dumber in his campaign. Even Dan Quayle had a brain.
.Your problem, wolfie, is your inability to separate your wishes from the realities....
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Not this time. Far too many mistakes and the worst campaign advice I've ever seen. No timing sense at all.
And obviously a bad selection for VP.
No kidding. Did you see what just happened to Palin? Mccain will have to keep her at this point and quite frankly, all the better. Mccain should have stayed somewhat independent and challenged Bush in 2004 rather than flip flop to the right.
Hey, thanks for the humor. You're a hoot.
Too bad the Keating story is taking a toll on Mccain these days. You might want to consider campaigning for Palin in 2012. Just put her as the GOP nominee in 2012 and see how she fares against incumbent President Obama depending upon on things work out.
This is what happens when you turn a free service (registering to vote) into an industry.
What ACORN and other "voter rights" groups aren't telling you is that they themselves get paid per registration. When they tell you they're non-partisan, they're lying. They target demographics that they're sure will vote one way or another. White lies are still dishonest.
They could really give a crap who they hire: what they want is massive stacks of paper--each registration to them is cash (and sometimes, information is cash too). Sure, they have to pay their people per hour...but they get paid by the numbers. So tweakers and ex-cons, please apply.
These groups--conservative, liberal or issue based--are doing nothing but scamming political cash cows and confusing voters, often doing more harm to the system than good. The job of the people on the ground is to fast talk anybody and everybody into putting their John Hancocks on a piece of paper that in many cases they know nothing about.
There are dozens of places for people to register and just about everybody can vote. If they don't, the friggin' political parties should leave them alone--or develop platforms that actually mean something to people.
ACORN is not telling me that they themselves get paid per registration. I have that quote from the article.
"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."
You implied that ACORN gets paid by the registration. You gave no reference source for this information. Nor, if you know simply because you are psychic, did you give any backup evidence of your psychic abilities. You could have at least told us all that Bank of America's stock will hit zero in two weeks.
OK, the story does have legs. CBS reported that, while ACORN paid by the hour, they also had high quotas for the workers. A pretty large bunch of workers responded by making up people for voter registration cards just to make quotas.
This is slightly different than the writer's claim, above, that ACORN paid per card. You were essentially right, tho.
I have to call them straight. ACORN has a credibility issue now. They need to stop claiming they had rigorous policies in place, because they didn't. They need to back off from "FACT: Our canvassers are paid by the hour, not by the card,..." because in most states if their organizers didn't bring in the cards, the pay stopped.
Every news cycle that ACORN doesn't back off from those FACTs, they hurt Sen. Obama's chances of winning. For Sen. Obama's good they need to swallow hard. What will it be, ACORN, your leadership's personal pride in always telling the truth, or helping to achieve something that you really want?
Thanks for clearing that up.
If I were a Republican, why on earth would I go to Berkley to register young voters?
Likewise, why would Democrats go to a fundamentalist Christian church to register voters?
What's non-partisan is the fact that they register everyone who wants to register once they're approached, no matter what party is chosen.
Legally they have to "let you vote for whoever you want."
However, in some places the person who signs you up makes all the difference. Felons are not allowed to work in campaigning in some places. If a felon approaches you in, say, Phoenix AZ, and you sign their signature sheet for an issue campaign (not a voter reg), your signature is worth nothing because that's illegal. So the opposition party goes down to the county office, goes through all the paperwork and kicks out thousands of signatures because Johnny X who got all those signatures is a felon.
Now your signature doesn't count. However, if you did your stuff yourself, your signature would carry all the weight it should.
--Just an FYI into how things work with these companies.
"What ACORN and other "voter rights" groups aren't telling you is that they themselves get paid per registration."
Are you sure of that? You know it to be fact? I was thinking their people were paid by the app is the reason I ask. I don't know for sure.
Well, I've worked for several groups of the like.
This is what happens. There is a group that pays your organization. How your org pitches them is, "We can get you 50,000 signatures in two weeks for X amount of dollars, or Y amount per reg or sig."
You guys then get your "Field Directors" the walk lists. You hire a crap-ton of people. And because you want to keep it cheap, you hire anybody and don't spend any time on the vetting process.
You give them your walk lists, drop them off and go to work.
At the end of the week, you turn your numbers in to the people who pay you. They then decide whether or not they have the numbers they need. Often they will hire several groups to work the same turf.
When you work in a campaign office, you realize how sleazy the whole thing is. Some people actually freelance. They go to a library and get a bunch of reg cards, have people fill them out and then shop them around to whoever they think will buy them. And some campaigns will buy them because they didn't have to, say, rent them a car, give them a phone or whatever--it's cheaper.
Now correct addresses are worth money too. Active phone numbers are worth money as well, because when you're doing robo-calling, you want to have working phone numbers. So in many cases, you can take the information on the voter reg card, enter it into a database, and sell the political group a list of numbers--and your robocalling service. Now they think their flyers and phone calls are going to be more effective because your data is fresh, not 4 years old.
I'm not making this up. Seriously. There's a hell of a lot of weird stuff going on out there.
Thanks for the information.
"several groups like this" is not ACORN.
I'm not with ACORN, so I don't know their details, but I doubt strongly that they are advertising their service out to other groups. ACORN has always been a grassroots organizing group, and their voter registration drives are a part of trying to empower the communities they work in. What you describe sounds very unlike ACORN from the times I've been around them.
Why don't you clear things up by telling us exactly which groups you've worked for and which campaigns?
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
Personally I'd rather not post my resume.
But, uh, where do you think they get the money to run their operations?
Oh good Lord. Samson's not asking you to post your resume. Just name one company you worked for that you claim is like ACORN. Geesh !
I can tell you've never been around ACORN much.
You've obviously been around corporate money backed campaigns. I real grassroots campaign is a mystery to you.
Yes, I beleive both Democratic and Republican campaigns that are flush with money would do exactly what you describe. The 'get out the vote' efforts they do have much the same stink around them.
But, that doesn't mean ACORN works the same way.
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
Fuggit.
You're right. I've only worked for giant corporations, I have no experience in real grassroots organizations, ACORN is great and I've never seen or heard of them in an industry where you pay very close attention to what everybody else is doing--and where everybody works for everybody at some point.
I was speaking about the political business in general, but I have worked for groups you've heard of--and some you'd probably spurt your milk over if I ragged on 'em. I was just trying to point out that the system is crooked, not to assail a single group. ACORN is, you must recognize, suffering from problems--and you've got to ask yourself why. Again, I was just trying to shed a little light on why this may be whilst offering an opinion that people should just go down to the DMV and fill out the forms their damned selves in order to prevent such problems.
I'll take the word of a community advocacy group over the government any day of the week. Our government has a long, well documented history of spying on, lying about, and harassing left-wing, people-power movements.
And a very long history of trying to limit voter participation in elections. Think poll taxes and literacy tests and the like.
We live in a society where the government keeps records on all of us. So, why is voter registration separate from this. The government knows who we are and where we live, so why do we have to register to vote at all?
A lot of this is simply barriers to voting. It should be as simple as showing up to voter, show some id like a drivers license, then vote. You shouldn't have to go to a particular precinct, or pre-register or anything. With computer systems, they could easily make sure one person is voting once, as long as there was some id check to verify who you are when you do vote.
Its all about making it hard for citizens to vote.
This is why ACORN is attacked. Both by Faux news and by the Faux trolls out here. They are trying to remove the barriers to help people vote. And that is not popular with powerful people.
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
bligh4
Yeah, poll taxes and literacy tests were anti-democratic, and good riddance to them. Unfortunatly, they were both dreamed up by the Democratic party down here in the south.
Right On! Go ACORN !
Frankly I don't know what to think for sure. There has always been a bit of fraud...not just ACORN, here and there.
Last night they showed a registar in Missouri I think that said more than half of the apps submitted by ACORN were fraudulent. They showed samples obviously signed by the same hand.
I think we will just have to see how it plays out. If the reports are true, its not hard to prove, if not, somebody better get ready to kiss someones ....in apology.
.Gee ,Thomas, an accusation sans attribution?
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
"they showed" You showed. Some corporate media newscast. The same people who told you Iraq had WMD's, or that a $800 billion theft of public money would save Wall Street.
Why are you listening to these people? And, why would you beleive them?
Like you say, its not hard to prove. And there's the minor little inconvenient truth in the original article that says that in all the years of doing this, ACORN has never been proven to be fraudulent.
So, even though ACORN has been accused of this in the past, and even though no one has ever proven it, you are still willing to accept what the corporate media tells you, even though exactly as you say, this wouldn't be hard to prove. Apparently the basic fact that no one has been able to prove this doesn't really count for much with you, and you'd rather beleive the liars in the TV box. Strange.
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
That wasn't the "media" that was telling me this, it was registars in various locations and yes, I don't automatically assume this is not true. Nor do I assume its true. As I stated above, I don't know. But we will find out I'm sure.
Its strange that you want to take whatever I say and tell me what my conclusion is.
More,
The 'samples' of identical handwriting couldn't have been from the hand of a repugnant pigs hand... Did any of you, not just you More, happen to see an evidentiary chain envelope consistent with these false claims? No, you didn't. Thats why the claims are false.
Besides, Let's negotiate the known, proven, Repugnant Pigs voter cheating in the last two Presidential cluster fucks against even this lame attempt to defame this institution's reputation! That is right, No contest.
Just further proof comments on CD are made by, not you More, mostly trolling fascists.
Thank for the exclusion!
Such anger. Such venom. How sad. You must be a very unhappy human being. I feel sorry for you.
Just because you're a paranoid Obamabot doesn't mean that everyone here who doesn't bow down to your Messiah is a "trolling fascist".
By your logic, since you think that the Repubs stole the prior two elections, it's OK for the Dems to do it this year ? Is this the Obamabot tactical plan ?
There is no way submitting obviously bogus voter registration cards can result in votes for Obama. Wake up and see the Republican treachery once again - alleged voter "fraud" is a false flag Republican talking point, and this operation stinks of Rove and his thieving, lying minions even as their treasured Reagononics takes down this country faster than a thousand bin Ladens.
The republicans stole their elections through election fraud, not voter fraud.
q
And the Repugly Fraud Squad is trying to kick 2.3 million registered democrats off the polls.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
bligh4
Acorn non-partisan, give me a break.
Prove that it's actually partisan. Besides, why would you want to trust a rightwing network like Faux Noise over ACORN any day? Do you still believe that Faux Noise is "fair and balanced" ?
bligh4
Not a clue what the hell you are talking about. Have not seen any acorn drives in areas likely to vote republican- including the rural counties surrounding mine.
Prove they aren't partisan.
Okay. If they were really partisan, then we wouldn't just see Republicans gripping that they are, we'd see lawsuits based on it and changes to ACORN's tax status.
We'd don't see these, just insinuations, ipso facto ACORN is NOT partisan.
Have any difficult questions?
"Have not seen any acorn drives in areas likely to vote republican- including the rural counties surrounding mine."
That doesn't prove that ACORN is partisan. In fact, you already proved that they're non-partisan unless you can site any actual evidence that ACORN was actually doing a vote drive for Democrats.
No kidding. >;-)
I'd be willing to read this article if it hadn't been written by ACORN people.
You would read this article if you had an attention span that lasted more then 5 minutes.
I saw this bullshit on Lou Dobbs last night. It was obvious then ACORN would have zero reason to turn in fake registrations. If you (and Lou Dobbs) would read this reply you would realize this is clearly some retard republican filling out fake forms so ACORN gets blamed and Obama with them.
As they explain above, they are required to turn in all forms whether valid or not. They then flag the ones they know to be fake. It isn't their fault registrars ignore their flags.
LOL!
"It was obvious then ACORN would have zero reason to turn in fake registrations."
Agreed. I saw a bunch of cards submitted in Indiana, a state now very much in swing, where the voter registrations people indicated that at least half the cards they examined with ACORN ID on them were patently false, with signatures written in the same hand, employer names and addresses used as voter names, etc. With no incentive to flood or falsify, why would ACORN employees submit obviously false forms? Such "fraud" would never work at a polling place, so why would ACORN do it?
Answer - they wouldn't, but Republican operatives would.
The reason? The voter registrar said that the suspicious ACORN forms all came in on the last day of eligibility, and slowed down their overworked system. So they elected to SUSPEND TALLYING of the ACORN cards until everything else was done. Republican false flag flood to throw the baby out with the bathwater? You betcha!
There's a nugget in here you won't see mentioned much.
If Indiana is a 'swing state', this election is over. Indiana should be a Republican stronghold. If its in play as a swing state, the Republicans are toast in this election.
Just another good reason to vote your conscience and vote Nader!
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
I would say that I believe ACORN employees are paid by the registratioon. That could be an explanation.
.But the article clearly notes that these workers are paid by the hour, Thomas.....
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Why do you believe this?
ACORN says just the opposite. But you'd rather believe the liars on TV?
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
"It was obvious then ACORN would have zero reason to turn in fake registrations."
How is this "obvious" ?
Btw, they don't say that in every state they have to turn in all forms. They say in ALMOST every state. So of the states that are in question, where voter registration fraud has been alleged, are they all states that require that all forms be turned in ? Also, I doubt that any state would want to receive duplicate forms, ACORN workers could easily weed those out.
.What seems obvious is that you maintain some sort of bias against ACORN, are very willing to believe right wing propaganda against an organisation that registers Democrats for the most part. This bias by right wingers and GOP loyalists is understandable in the light of historical efforts by the GOP to keep voter turnout low. Perhaps you might share the reasons for your own bias here?
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
I don't know about any state but Florida, but Florida law quite specifically states that all forms must be turned in, even if they are only partially complete! Nothing is left in the hands of the person registering votes.
PS. I'll take the word of a community advocacy group over the government any day of the week. Our government has a long, well documented history of spying on, lying about, and harassing left-wing, people-power movements.
A very long history.