By now everyone should know that ACORN has submitted thousands and thousands of bogus registrations in many states, in multiple elections. Some of the false registrations are laughably false, such as the one in Florida for Mickey Mouse.
(Here are some recent examples of ACORN's problems, if you need a review:
The Michigan Secretary of State told the press in September that Acorn had submitted "a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications." Earlier this month, Nevada's Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller requested a raid on Acorn's offices, following complaints of false names and fictional addresses (including the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys). Nevada's Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said he saw rampant fraud in 2,000 to 3,000 applications Acorn submitted weekly.
Officials in Ohio are investigating voter fraud connected with Acorn, and Florida's Seminole County is withholding Acorn registrations that appear fraudulent. New Mexico, North Carolina and Missouri are looking into hundreds of dubious Acorn registrations. Wisconsin is investigating Acorn employees for, according to an election official, "making people up or registering people that were still in prison."
Then there's Lake County, Indiana, which has already found more than 2,100 bogus applications among the 5,000 Acorn dumped right before the deadline. "All the signatures looked exactly the same," said Ruthann Hoagland, of the county election board. Bridgeport, Connecticut estimates about 20% of Acorn's registrations were faulty. As of July, the city of Houston had rejected or put on hold about 40% of the 27,000 registration cards submitted by Acorn.
That's just this year. In 2004, four Acorn employees were indicted in Ohio for submitting false voter registrations. In 2005, two Colorado Acorn workers were found to have submitted false registrations. Four Acorn Missouri employees were indicted in 2006; five were found guilty in Washington state in 2007 for filling out registration forms with names from a phone book.
And if you want to find more examples, you can, without much effort.)
By now, it is obvious that the ACORN registration drives are organized so that many bogus registrations are likely, in fact, inevitable. Even some ACORN workers have come to that conclusion:
Current and former ACORN employees say the problems are no accident. "There's no quality control on purpose, no checks and balances," says Nate Toler, who until late 2006 was head organizer of an ACORN campaign against Wal-Mart in Merced, California. In 2004 he worked on an ACORN voter drive in Missouri, and he says that ACORN statements are not to be taken at face value. "The internal motto is 'We don't care if it's a lie, just as long as it stirs up the conversation.'" (pp. 52-53)
All that is obvious. But what may not be obvious is why ACORN is doing this. Why would they want to pay their workers to create these bogus registrations? Why not use the same money to register real voters? That way ACORN could have the new voters, who would be likely to support ACORN's leftist causes, without the bad publicity.
I think that there are three reasons that ACORN is submitting all these false registrations. Toler hints at one, when he says they want to stir up the conversation. For organizations like ACORN, bad publicity is better than no publicity. They can use the controversy from their bogus registrations to pose as victims, to raise charges of racism, and all the rest. Moreover — and this is probably important to them in the long run — they can use the controversy to undermine trust in elections in the poor communities they target. In other words, ACORN may believe that the controversy helps them with their long-run propaganda efforts.
Second, they may think that they can get more people registered if they skip that small step of verifying the registrations. Checking registrations does take some time, and they may think, for instance, that they are better off getting twenty registrations, even if five are bogus, than by getting twelve registrations, all of them good.
And there is, I believe, a third reason that ACORN submits all these false registrations. They hope that some of them will lead to fraudulent votes for their favored candidates. They are trying, in other words, to facilitate vote fraud.
It is easy to miss this if we look only at the most absurd cases, Mickey Mouse and the like. But a little bit of thought will show you that ACORN workers could almost as easily make up plausible registrations, especially if they live in the neighborhood where they are working. I won't go into the details of how this could be done, partly because they vary from state to state, and partly because I don't want to give directions to crooks. But it would be easy, almost everywhere, for any reasonably intelligent person to create false registrations that would be accepted by election officials. And I think it is certain that some ACORN workers have done just that.
And once those false registrations are in the system, it would foolish to think that some fraudsters will not use them, perhaps the same fraudsters who created them. As foolish as thinking that leaving cash registers open will not lead to more theft.
What ACORN is doing, in other words, is trying to facilitate what I call "distributed vote fraud", not fraud by a few people in a campaign or party organization, but fraud by many individuals or small groups, operating independently. (For a discussion of the extent of distributed vote fraud, see this post.)
There is one certain result of these ACORN registration campaigns. Any narrow victory for leftist candidates in states where ACORN has operating will look suspicious to their opponents. And from ACORN's point of view, that's probably another potential benefit from all their bogus registrations. The more people that distrust our elections, the better — for ACORN, though not for our nation.
Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics.
Posted by Jim Miller at October 21, 2008 02:04 PM | Email ThisThat being said, your statement:
They hope that some of them will lead to fraudulent votes for their favored candidates. They are trying, in other words, to facilitate vote fraud.
is weak and illogical, for a few reasons.
First, there is NO proof that this is at the scale where it would influence an election. None. At no time has anyone made a substantiate claim of ballot fraud, and in fact, there are cases where claims of ballot fraud in the primaries have been disproven.
Second, this suggests that a key objective has been to spend an incredible amount of time and energy on distributed voting fraud that would have little impact on overall results... which is just bad strategy. The time and the effort involved with the voter registration programs with ACORN are far more productive than a fraud that would add substantially fewer votes if it was successful.
Finally, there is no proof that what you have described for ACORN is true of other voter registration programs, left and right. Take this case, for example. Falsely registering people as Republicans by asking them to sign a petition is dishonest... it may not be ballot fraud, but I'm ready to hear how it may be worse than what ACORN has done.
Posted by: demo kid on October 21, 2008 02:41 PMRCW 29A.08.115
Registration by other than auditor or secretary of state.
A person or organization collecting voter registration application forms must transmit the forms to the secretary of state or a county auditor at least once weekly. The registration date on such forms will be the date they are received by the secretary of state or county auditor.
Posted by: Steven Donegal on October 21, 2008 02:42 PMYou GOP cons and SP neocons need some serious re-education.
Start with this: Today's Dub Daily blows away rumors that Bill Ayers, Obama's good friend, was a terrorist or is a non-repentent terrorist with tenure. According to a tax-supported student at Seattle's primo tax-supported university, Ayers is a "former activist."
And according to Big Dave at KIRO, conservatives think that only whiny liberals are whining about cuts in county law enforcement. Actually, Dave, liberals hate law enforcement. That's what being liberal is all about. That's why liberal comrade EnRon Sims is chopping Rahr's shop first instead of more important things.
Conservatives tend to think that enforcing good laws is the first or second responsibility of good government. But Big Dave and other liberal whiners think we pro-law-&-order types are racists. That's why we can't win. That's why we won't win in November. That's why we need U Dub-style re-education if we're gonna survive Obama Nation. (But saying that is probably racist. Oh well.)
Posted by: dross @ KIRO on October 21, 2008 02:54 PMThe New York Post reported that ACORN treats its signature gatherers like indentured servants. It coerces them with veiled threats and unveiled punishments if they fail to meet ACORN 'quotas.' If gatherers don't gather (or forge) enough signatures to please the yard boss, the gatherers are harassed and fired.
That allows ACORN to blame its multi-state frauds on lowly temps. That further allows ACORN to flood the zone. Dump hundreds of thousands of last-minute signatures on, say, Ohio's Sec of State, and then assume there's no time for verification and vetting.
ACORN tells the media that it flagged a few dubious entries, and then gets to laugh all the way to the ballot box while Mickey Mouse votes absentee. Jane's dog in King County proved that any mutt or rodent can vote at a distance, thereby blowing away the specious argument that any mutt or rodent will be turned away at a polling place.
And thereby electing Democrat dogs and rodents from sea to sea.
Posted by: Dean Logan Died 4 Your Sins on October 21, 2008 03:11 PMAcorn is simply worried about all those peoples penmanship. And rather than throw all those "pratice sheets" into the local landfill, they are giving them to a government agency for proper disposal.
/sarc off
Posted by: David on October 21, 2008 03:12 PMSecond of all, ACORN DOES verify registrations - but they still have to turn in the fake ones. In fact, many of the cases of registration fraud are DISCOVERED by ACORN, and then reported.
Your final point, about facilitating vote fraud has zero evidence supporting it, in your post or anywhere. People do not attempt vote fraud because the gain (one or a few votes for your candidate) is seriously out weighed by the potential loss (prison time).
Posted by: Noble on October 21, 2008 03:14 PMI think you are missing a 4th tactic. ACORN's methods leave room for plausible deniability but allows them to completely turn the tables and cry voter suppression when Republicans attempt to prosecute for voter fraud. And if a contest is really close, they can pull that little "voter suppression" gem out of the bag and make it look like the Republican's tried or possibly even succeeded in "stealing" the election.
Either way, they win the propaganda wars because they were innocently trying to franchise the underclass while the bad ole racist republicans were not at all trying to enforce laws, they were instead trying to keep people from voting by challenging only the submissions of the poor communities (Of course ACORN is only submitting registrations FROM those communities.)
On the other hand, if Republicans can be forced NOT to challenge obviously false registrations then it is much easier to submit not so obviously false registrations in the future that will not be challenged because the charge of racism will have already been established.
Posted by: Eyago on October 21, 2008 03:27 PMFirst up, setting up the circumstances that could enable voting fraud is bad.
Second, even if none of those voter registrations is actually used to vote, it can be used to undermine the validity of any elections.
Third, ACORN has gone to great lengths to avoid any kind of quality-control process in its collected registrations ...Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on October 21, 2008 03:34 PM
So, why do you think ACORN keeps submitting all those bogus registrations?
Posted by: Jim Miller on October 21, 2008 03:41 PMBottom line since we all agree vote fraud is not the goal of ACORN this is real easy to go back to the preACORN days.
The Money issue...shot down... look at the amount of money being spent to clean up voter rolls, prosecute ACORN, investigate ACORN and besides money spent on civilized elections is a corner stone of a civilization and is inexpensive compared to civil war.
Here's a clue: the Dems are gonna win big-time in November largely due to the excesses of the Neo-cons running the Republican Party. Get used to it and start working on returning to your roots as the party of small government, individual liberty, individual responsibility, and avoidance of foreign entanglements.
You guys have lost this round of the battle, but the war ain't over yet.
Posted by: Politically Incorrect on October 21, 2008 03:44 PMWhich completely glosses over the idea that the GOP can use ACORN as a scapegoat as to why they didn't win an election.
Posted by: demo kid on October 21, 2008 04:09 PMI've said it before, and I'll say it again. We will never have fair voting until each and every vote is open, and displayed on a web page, with name, address and phone number for verification.
"Florida’s elections chief, Secretary of State Kurt Browning, acknowledged his staff has failed to remove thousands of ineligible felons because of a shortage of workers and a crush of new registrations in this critical swing state."
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
October 12, 2008
1. Mandatory re-registration every 4 years
2. Proof of citizenship required at time of registration
3. Proof of identify at time of voting
4. No more "permanent absentee ballot" - you request for EACH election
Why would this not work? What about it is unfair?
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on October 21, 2008 04:33 PMAt some point, the bogus registrations become such a caricature of vote fraud lore, that laws will be changed to make registration and voting more secure. Even in Democrat controlled legislatures.
It is interesting that Iraq has far more secure elections than the US.
Posted by: Jeff B. on October 21, 2008 04:33 PMWe should require mandatory DNA testing at all polling places to ensure that voters are who they say they are, and place the bill for the tests with the individual.
We should require a full genealogical study to ensure that every voter's ancestors were properly naturalized, and penalize anyone with incomplete records.
We should keep the polling place completely soundless, and require that all people entering the voting booth be searched for any cheat sheets or communication devices.
We should require that any voter be licensed as a voter by answering advanced comprehension questions about American history and government, to ensure that they understand the role of their votes first.
There is a balance to voting requirements. My opinion is that you go too far, that you're excluding people from the process without reason. Explain why you don't think that is the case.
Posted by: demo kid on October 21, 2008 05:00 PMalso, it depresses the voting turnout if the one group being stolen from thinks the stealer has all this power, and why should "I" vote....assigning power to the stealer far beyond what he actually has...
"sooner of later, we all have to sit down to a banquet of consequences"....
and that banquet will be bitch....
Posted by: lee on October 21, 2008 05:15 PM
Nice hyperbole. No need for anything you state, just lots of extra rhetoric...
There is a balance to voting requirements.
Correct. And what we have now is clearly too little. By proof of the thousands of fraudulent registrations we have clogging up the system.
My opinion is that you go too far, that you're excluding people from the process without reason.
OK, what would be a reasonable process in your eyes? I laid out what I would think would be reasonable.
Explain why you don't think that is the case.
Think WHAT is not the case? You never laid anything out!
The Constitutions of the US and the State of Washington are quite explicit - voting is a RIGHT of citizens ONLY. So to have that right, you must be a citizen. Meaning that you should have to prove your citizenship before you can register to vote.
There's no requirement to be literate, rich, a land owner, or no hate the Yankees. Simply to be a citizen.
So what is so onerous about proving one's citizenship, to protect the very thing that is exclusive to American citizens only?
What is your solution - you like what we have now?
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on October 21, 2008 05:46 PMhttp://www.mdc.edu/Home/Press/rally.htm
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Acorn_pushes_back_hugs_McCain.html
Posted by: Acid Brain on October 21, 2008 05:47 PMThe vast majority of voter registrations that ACORN has submitted are 100 percent legitimate. The voters are citizens, they live where they say they live, and all their information is correct.
But don't believe me (Not that you lot would anyway). The Secretaries of State say so, across the board, when asked.
That's bad news for you righties. If ACORN was just registering a few people, it wouldn't be any big deal. You hate them because they're effective.
I make no excuses for the bogus registrations. Bogus is bogus when ACORN does it and when Eyman or anybody else does it.
But they're not all bogus. Not by a long shot. And you know it.
Yes, and we know McCain changed his stance on offshore drilling. New information comes along, new facts or circumstances require you to re-evaluate your position.
That is the sign of a mature, wise man.
On the other hand, we get something like Obama clinging to the increases in the capital gains tax. Even when told the truth by Charlie Gibson that increasing the capital gains tax will REDUCE Federal revenue, Obama refused to change his position.
That is the sign of an irrational man. One who puts personal belief ahead of the country.
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on October 21, 2008 06:21 PMShow me one bogus voter registration that Eyeman ever submitted. Just one.
What's your solution to solving voter registration fraud? Going to go silent on that like the rest of your Slavery Party kin?
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on October 21, 2008 06:24 PMJust think how many fraudulent voters are already in the system....that have been accumulated over the years.
The ONLY way to clean up this mess is a complete Nationwide Voter re-registration with a Nationwide Voter Registration Database using SS Numbers AND Drivers Licenses to validate.
Who in the heck doesn't have an SS number and is voting????
My guess is there are hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens registered to vote.
ACORN is throwing all these ridiculous registrations out there to keep Election Officials and the Republican Party so busy they can't focus on the frauds already in the system!
I still don't think they have scowered the Voter Registration Roles to validate all the thousands of voters registered at Homeless Shelters, Mailbox Services, Boat Marina's like Ports etc. etc. etc.
Unfortunately, the responsiblity once they are in the system belongs to the Political Party's to challenge registrations.
Have the Republican's challenged any registrations since the Lori Sotelo debacle??
Not many I'll bet.
Sadly, it's too late now that the ballots are mailed out to challenge anyone's registration.
Posted by: Big Ed on October 21, 2008 06:32 PMWilliam Ayers and Wade Rathke were members of the communist SDS. Over thirty-five years ago, Ayers went on to found the terrorist Weather Underground (Trotskyite) and Rathke founded ACORN (Fabian). Between the two of them, they now control or influence the largest neo-communist party in the US. Obama is their movement's front man.
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/10/17/wade-rathke-acorns-founder-ayers-compatriot/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH7kT4xwddg
Posted by: 5.62 on October 21, 2008 06:49 PM
I noticed your "explanation" (AKA ACORN apologist) - word for word - on three different blogs spread across the blogosphere. Couldn't you at least paraphrase it? ;'}
Posted by: Alphabet Soup on October 21, 2008 07:45 PM
What's funny is that they actually separate these fraudulent cards of their own volition and submit them with the label of being suspect and to be tossed out. Something they aren't required to do at all, but do so to speed up the registration processing.
In the last two elections, we have seen clear cases of GOP efforts to disenfranchise voters likely not to vote for their candidates. This is just the latest attempt to do that again, and to try and get some political gains out of it as well, by smearing a grass roots organization who's efforts tend be good for democrats instead of republicans.
Keep in mind, McCain before the this recent attack of his, at one time praised ACORN very highly. It wasn't until Rovian politics saw something to exploit for emotional voter reactions that McCain flipped on his support for this organization.
The fear I think, is that if everybody eligible starts voting, the GOP will never see the White House again. This might be true, and is a great reason for some serious reform in the party away from its current embrace of xenophobia, which is solidifying the base around racist and religious zealots.
Posted by: Brandon on October 22, 2008 03:23 AMAnd ACORN is the middleman in the transaction.
J. Random Liberal (or J. Random Noncitizen) wants to contribute $BigBucks directly to a campaign. He contacts ACORN who funnels the money through their bogus registrants (and keeps a piece of the action for themselves). Clever.
The left complains about Diebold & voter suppression. The right complains about military ballots and voter registration.
The system is broken, needs to be scrapped, and rebuilt from scratch.
You happy with 97% of all ACORN registrations being fake? Does that mean ACORN's bad registrations are few and far between, or systemic?
I'd say a 97% FAIL rate is more than just a few. In fact, it would be more time-efficient to scan for the GOOD registrations, rather than the bad ones!
When a group has 97 of 100 registrations tossed out as fraudulent, then the group itself should be tossed. It's work is worthless. It's doing nothing but clogging up the system.
So tell me: how would you change the system to clean it out? Or do you like it all messed up, and not only allowing fraudulent votes but fraudulent contributions (excellent point, WestBellevueDad!)?
Admit it, Leftists - you like fraud. You relish in the thought of stealing the election. You believe the ends justify the means, and that laws simply do not apply to your kind.
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on October 22, 2008 06:30 PMZMac
-daughter of the Puritans
Posted by: ljm on October 24, 2008 10:10 PM