OT: Greatest potential for voting fraud from ACORN or Republican Party?
david...@aol.com
The following is replete with numerous references.
We’re hearing a lot about the trumped-up charges against ACORN these
days—but very little about the massive voter suppression campaign
being orchestrated by the Republicans. The GOP is trying to purge
thousands of Democratic voters off the rolls in states like Ohio,
Florida, and Colorado.
[SEE “States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal,” New York Times,
October 8, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/3ojvj5 ]
John McCain and Sarah Palin are falsely accusing a community
organizing group—ACORN—of voting fraud to distract the media from
their own party’s wrongdoing.
[SEE “ACORN defends efforts amid voter-fraud allegations,” Associated
Press, October 14, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/4nddjd ]
Worst of all: It’s working. The truth is, McCain is vilifying ACORN
to justify voter suppression—making it harder for Obama supporters to
vote.
The GOP’s voter suppression campaign could steal this election. For
over twenty-five years, Republicans have promoted the myth of voting
fraud to argue for restrictive voting laws—but Bush’s own Justice
Department found virtually no organized voting fraud.
[SEE “In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud,” New York
Times, April 12, 2007, http://tinyurl.com/34qcmw]
[SEE ALSO “The Truth About Fraud,” Brennan Center for Justice,
http://www.truthaboutfraud.org/ ]
Now McCain is attacking ACORN in order to justify a frenzy of lawsuits
making it harder for Obama supporters to vote.
Here’s what he’s not telling you:
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.
[SEE “The Truth About ACORN’s Voter Registration Drives,”
http://acorn.org/quickfacts]
[SEE ALSO “Group Answers Charges of Voter Registration Fraud,” New
York Times, October 14, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/4togtf ]
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.
[SEE “Voter Group Admits Mistakes, Defends Work,” ABC News, October
14, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/4fgks2 ]
[SEE ALSO “Is there ACORN fraud in Florida?,” Orlando Sentinel,
October 15, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/49gpal ]
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.
[SEE “‘Fraud’ vs. ‘Suppression’,” Politico, October 14, 2008,
http://tinyurl.com/4megef ]
The false charges of voting fraud leveled at ACORN distract us from
the very real voter suppression campaign that is already well under
way. Republicans are looking for typos on voter registration forms,
threatening to challenge homeowners facing foreclosure, and falsely
warning that voters with outstanding traffic tickets may be arrested
if they go to the polls.
[SEE “After A Surge in Registration, A Surge in Suppression,” Brennan
Center for Justice, October 7, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/53hhbx ]
[SEE ALSO “Democrats fear GOP will turn away foreclosed voters; GOP
won’t rule out using residency change to challenge a ballot,”
Indianapolis Star, October 3, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/3shcpw ]
[SEE ALSO “Vote-scam fliers target black neighborhoods,” Philadelphia
Daily News, October 2, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/4zpmgw ]
[SEE ALSO “Check-off box delays thousands of voter registrations,”
Denver Post, October 14, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/4xajd7 ]
Don Klipstein
david...@aol.com wrote in part:
>The following is replete with numerous references.
>
>We're hearing a lot about the trumped-up charges against ACORN these
>days but very little about the massive voter suppression campaign
>being orchestrated by the Republicans. The GOP is trying to purge
>thousands of Democratic voters off the rolls in states like Ohio,
>Florida, and Colorado.
And somebody was circulating flyers in some of Philadelphia's black
neighborhoods saying (falsely) that people with outstanding warrants and
unpaid old traffic tickets will be arrested if they show up at their
polling place.
- Don Klipstein (d...@misty.com)
Dennis
wrote:
>In article <slrngfiqh...@manx.misty.com>,
> d...@manx.misty.com (Don Klipstein) wrote:
>
>> And somebody was circulating flyers in some of Philadelphia's black
>> neighborhoods saying (falsely) that people with outstanding warrants and
>> unpaid old traffic tickets will be arrested if they show up at their
>> polling place.
>>
>> - Don Klipstein (d...@misty.com)
>
>Yup. I have a friend who's on Philadelphia's non-partisan Committee of
>70 election watchdog group. She told me about those flyers two weeks
>ago. Its an obvious Republican ploy to keep people away from voting.
I'm not a repubican, but somehow I have a hard time getting worked up
over the notion of discouraging fugitives who are also so stupid they
fall for this scam from voting.
Dennis (evil)
--
An inherent weakness of a pure democracy is that half
the voters are below average intelligence.