ACORN: The Official Thread

[souvlaki]

I knew this all sounded familiar:

GOP Halts Paid Voter-Drive Program

By Ashley Powers and Lynn Doan
March 08, 2006 in print edition B-3

The California Republican Party has suspended its fee-based voter registration program while prosecutors in San Bernardino and Orange counties investigate possible registration fraud connected to private firms hired by the party, GOP officials said.

The suspension came after election officials in the two counties discovered thousands of flawed registration forms and received complaints from residents who said they had been improperly registered as Republicans.

Officials in both counties have turned over the forms to local prosecutors and contacted the California secretary of state.

The voter registration program, in which the GOP paid private contractors $3 for each new registration submitted, was credited with adding 750,000 Republican registrations to state voter rolls in the last three years.

“It provides us with no benefit to wrongly register voters,” said GOP spokesman Hector Barajas, adding that the party would continue to register voters using volunteers.

For three decades, the state Republican and Democratic parties have accused each other of voter registration fraud, said Bruce Cain, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies.

But the process has evolved since party volunteers collected most of the registration forms.

“When you switched from party activists to paid people, the possibility of carelessness or fraud goes up because they’re doing it for a buck,” Cain said.

State Democrats also run a so-called bounty program, but pay $4 per registration form only to volunteers affiliated with party clubs or committees, said party Chairman Art Torres.

“There’s an inherent problem with using the private sector for the party machine,” Torres said.

In Orange County, the allegations center on a subcontractor working for Bader & Associates, a Newport Beach-based signature collection firm run by Thomas Bader.

Contractor Christopher Dinoff appeared to be connected to the 100 or so cases of allegedly improper voter registration that elections officials turned over to the district attorney’s office last week, Orange County election officials said. Dinoff did not return calls seeking comment.

About three dozen Orange County Democrats complained that they were signed up as Republicans, and a number of the voter registration forms submitted to the registrar’s office had invalid phone numbers and addresses, election officials said.

Bader, the firm’s owner, ran voter registration programs for the state Republican Party from 2003 to 2005 and for the San Bernardino County GOP for about six years, party officials said.

“We tried to clean it up, but you put yourself at risk because all [workers] out there have to do something a little shady, and all you can do is enforce the standards and not pay people when you catch fraud,” Bader said Tuesday. Bader said he wanted to get out of the voter registration business, but would remain as a petition circulator.

Bader said he had hired Dinoff in Orange County and also John Burkett of Riverside, who took charge of the San Bernardino County GOP’s voter registration program this year.

Officials say Burkett has turned in thousands of allegedly flawed voter registration forms to the San Bernardino County registrar’s office, including 1,800 that lacked driver’s license numbers or other official forms of identification, which is required by state law.

The Registrar of Voters also received complaints from people who said they were improperly registered as Republicans.

Burkett has said the flaws could have been caused by mistakes in the collection process or have occurred because he was unaware of a new law requiring the identification numbers.

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/08/local/me-voterfraud8

 

[SentinelMind]

Oh no, only those bad and terrible Democrats are really socialists, the Republicans are conservative-socialists only.

The typical fanatic only sees the "socialism" from the other party but not its own. BTW, universal healthcare is not bad, we enjoy it in France, Germany and most of Europe, we would never prefer the extremely inegalitarian and unfair American system.

Facts speak for themselves:



Only narrow-minded people who whine permanently about how "evil" government is could accept such mediocrity.

Then why does France and Germany have a higher crude death rate than USA?

 

[Mikelus]

^^ And a lot of less developed nations have a lower rate than the US, so?* Is not that important, but health care quality and coverage is.

* https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2066rank.html

 

[jaguarr]

I knew this all sounded familiar:



http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/08/local/me-voterfraud8

LMAO! GOP has it's very own in-house ACORN.

jag

 

[The Professor]

I suppose Mickey Mouse supports Chuck Baldwin?

 

[jaguarr]

http://www.freep.com/article/20081017/NEWS15/81017065

ELECTION 2008
Obama's legal team seeks special prosecutor for voter registration probe

By TODD SPANGLER • FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF • October 17, 2008

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama’s legal team wants a special prosecutor to determine whether partisan politics is at play in a reported though unconfirmed Justice Department investigation of a voter registration effort which has been the target of numerous complaints of late, including one in Michigan.
Advertisement

With the election just over two weeks away, Bob Bauer, Obama’s chief lawyer, said in a conference call with reporters this afternoon that he is asking U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to to hand over to special prosecutor Nora Dannehy any probe into what Bauer called “bogus claims of vote fraud” that mirror concerns raised by Republicans two years ago.

According to a recent Justice Department report, those issues played a role in the controversy over the forced resignations of nine former federal prosecutors.

That report – performed by the inspector general overseeing the Justice Department and others – found that David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney in New Mexico, “was removed because of complaints to the Department of Justice and the White House … about Iglesias’ handling of voter fraud” cases. He had been pushed to bring a case against ACORN – the Association of Community Activists for Reform Now, the group at the center of the current controversy.

“Are we seeing a repeat now?” said Bauer. “It would seem that we are.”

Justice Department didn’t immediately have a comment about Bauer’s letter – though it was unclear they would given that no investigation has publicly been announced and would not be. In his letter, Bauer noted that in citing unnamed sources for the report, the Associated Press said “Justice Department regulations forbid discussing ongoing investigations particularly close to an election.”

Bauer said there appears to be an “unholy alliance” between law enforcement officials and Republican officials, including presidential nominee John McCain’s campaign. In his letter, Bauer said in a footnote that several of the nominee’s supporters in Congress have written to the Justice Department “pressuring them to investigate ACORN.”

Also, word of the investigation was leaked within a day of McCain’s saying at Wednesday’s final presidential debate that the group “is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of our democracy.”

Rep. Candice Miller, a Harrison Township Republican and former Michigan secretary of state, added her voice to the call for an investigation, saying today, “This rampant abuse must be stopped.” Earlier in the day, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis again questioned Obama’s links to the group and used much the same language, saying while Democrats believe Republicans are engaged in voter suppression, there is evidence of “rampant voter fraud” that must be addressed.

While there have been numerous reports linking ACORN workers to falsified voter registration cards, however, there has been little – if any – evidence of a vast voter-fraud conspiracy Most of the cases which have come to light so far have involved a relatively small number of bad registration cards – and while elections officials have said checking them means more work few for them, few have suggested publicly that false registration cards lead to fraudulent votes being cast.

Even Davis, in his call with reporters, noted that “we don’t know how big the problem is” and that outside of some state investigative reports, “I don’t think anybody at this stage has any sense of how widespread the fraud has been.” Bauer, in his letter to Mukasey, argued that McCain’s claim of widespread fraud are “entirely unsupported” while Republicans want to “harass” and “impede” voters by challenging them at the polls, an accusation GOP officials have denied, saying they only want to combat fraud.

At the center of the debate is ACORN, a community rights organization which – among other activities – works to register voters, particularly in low- and moderate-income areas. This year, they say they have registered some 1.3 million new voters nationwide, particularly in battleground states. In Michigan, the group says it has registered more than 200,0000 new voters.

In the past, some of ACORN’s workers – who are paid by the hour to register voters – have been convicted of falsifying voter registration cards. ACORN acknowledged that some workers skirt responsibilities by falsifying cards but the organization maintains that it double-checks cards before turning them in. When it finds suspicious ones, it flags them for election officials – though still turns them in – and fires workers caught falsifying cards.

“They’ve done a much better job of weeding out the stuff that shouldn’t be there,” said Lynnette Hagen, a deputy clerk in Saginaw, who said maybe as many as 5% of the 2,500 or so registrations ACORN has turned in there might be bad. They catch the ones that are bad, she said – and while it’s possible that a false one might get through, it’s unlikely someone is going to purposely show up at the polls and try to vote under it, especially when he or she is going to be asked to produce identification.

“There’s no perfect way to do it,” said Hagen.

As the election has gotten closer this year, meanwhile, the scorn heaped on ACORN has gotten much deeper. In Nevada, state authorities searched the group’s Las Vegas offices, saying they had evidence of cards being turned in with names of players for the Dallas Cowboys, for instance, and there have been concerns raised in various other states as well. The Republican National Committee, on its Web site, keeps a running list of stories about the group’s activities.

In Michigan, the Free Press reported last month that clerks were seeing numerous problems with registration cards turned in by ACORN, which led state Attorney General Mike Cox to look into the matter. This week, he announced the arrest of a man for allegedly falsifying six registration cards in Jackson, Mich. ACORN officials in Michigan argued that the timing – coming this week – appeared political, but an official in Cox’s office said that had nothing to do with it, that the investigation took time.

Fueling part of the ACORN controversy has been Obama’s links to the group and the McCain campaign’s demands that they be fully and publicly vetted.

Obama does have ties to the group, though he has repeatedly said they are straightforward. He was one of a group of lawyers – including Justice Department representatives – who represented ACORN, the League of Women Voters and other groups in a voter registration case against the state of Illinois in the 1990s, and he also sat on a foundation board which gave money to the community organizing group. Obama – a former community organizer – also attended training sessions for the group in the past but never worked for it.

His campaign also paid more than $800,000 to an ACORN subsidiary this year to help get out the vote – not register voters – during the primary season.

Meanwhile, in 2006, McCain spoke to several groups in Miami, including ACORN, though his campaign has downplayed the significance of that engagement, noting that it was an immigration forum at the local archdiocese and the SEIU were also taking part.

jag

 

[jaguarr]

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/730636.html

Death threat, vandalism hit ACORN after accusations
By GREG GORDON
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- An ACORN community organizer received a death threat and the liberal-leaning voter registration group's Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized Thursday, reflecting mounting tensions over its role in registering 1.3 million mostly poor and minority Americans to vote next month.

Attorneys for the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now were notifying the FBI and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division of the incidents, said Brian Kettenring, a Florida-based spokesman for the group.

Republicans, including presidential candidate John McCain, have verbally attacked the group repeatedly in recent days, alleging a widespread vote-fraud scheme, although they've provided little proof. It was disclosed Thursday that the FBI is examining whether thousands of fraudulent voter-registration applications submitted by some ACORN workers were part of a systematic effort or isolated incidents.

Kettenring said that a senior ACORN staffer in Cleveland, after appearing on television this week, got an e-mail that said she "is going to have her life ended."

A female staffer in Providence, R.I., got a threatening call from someone who said words to the effect of "We know you get off work at 9," then uttered racial epithets, he said.

McClatchy Newspapers is withholding the women's names because of the threats.

Separately, vandals broke into the group's Boston and Seattle offices and stole computers, Kettenring said.

The incidents came the day after McCain charged in the final presidential debate that ACORN's voter-registration drive "may be perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history" and may be "destroying the fabric of democracy."

McCain's comments provoked a response from ACORN.

"I would not say that Senator McCain is inciting violence," Kettenring said, "but I would say that his statements about the role of this manufactured scandal were totally outlandish. We would call on Senator McCain to tamp down the fringe elements in his party."

McCain's campaign didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kettenring said that ACORN had received growing amounts of hate mail in recent weeks, but "the campaign debate sort of tipped it over to a scary point, where raising allegations of voter fraud went from a cynical campaign ploy to really inciting racial violence."

Since McCain's remarks, ACORN's 87 offices across the country have received hundreds of hostile e-mails, many of them containing racial slurs, Kettenring said. "We believe that these are specifically McCain supporters" sending the messages, he said.

The e-mail to the Cleveland employee was traced to a Facebook Web page in the name of a Baltimore man. It featured a photo of a McCain-Palin sign.

Kettenring said that the bulk of the e-mails had been either "flat-out racist" or had racial overtones. Most of the group's 400 members and about 80 percent of the 13,000 voter-registration canvassers are African-American or Latino.

It's unclear whether the alleged threats violated federal law, but Jonah Goldman, the director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan, nonprofit legal organization that battles discrimination, argued that the Voting Rights Act should apply.

"A real concern is the impact that these terrible acts have on the people who registered through these registration drives," Goldman said. "Legitimate, eligible voters who sign up through these registration drives may be understandably intimidated and choose not to show up at the polls, and the Voting Rights Act prevents voter intimidation."

Yayyyyy! McCain inspires more people to make death threats and engage in criminal acts against people he doesn't like.

jag

 

[Oddzball]

You do realize that Voter REGISTRATION Fraud and Voter FRAUD are completely different, right? There is no way that Mickey Mouse or 'Bubba J. Redneck' (as I believe Jman puts it ) is going to be able to vote without proper identification. There are measures put in place to stop these kinds of happenings AT THE POLLS. Just because someone has been registered to vote does not equate to an ACTUAL PHYSICAL VOTE.

Let me say that again - JUST BECAUSE A NAME HAS BEEN REGISTERED DOES NOT EQUATE TO AN ACTUAL PHYSICAL VOTE.

MORE TO THE POINT: By LAW every voter registration HAS to be turned in as written. ACORN called attention to some of the names they'd gotten. They aren't being investigated, some people who were paid by them to get legitimate registrations did not do so.

 

[fifthfiend]

Wow, what an unbelievably moronic and ignorant thread. Oh wait, StorminNormin started it? My bad, it's a totally believably moronic and ignorant thread.

What's that, the same administration which has spent its entire term of office chasing nonexistent "vote fraud", to the point of firing US Attorneys for nothing more than refusing to prosecute such non-existent cases, is continuing to do so? Oh, fancy that.

Anyone who actually knows the first thing about democracy as it operates here in the United States of America would understand that the non-exsistent form of vote fraud of which ACORN is accused would be a ridiculous, counterproductive waste of time for any group of people interested in influencing an election. That of course requires someone to 1. know things and 2. care about democracy, which naturally excludes Stormie and his ilk. Protip: in a country where at best 60% of eligible voters actually vote, there's not a lot of point in inventing imaginary voters, when for the same amount of work and substantially lower risk of going to prison you'd have a lot more success finding some actual people and getting them to go vote.

Of course that's what actually pisses the Republican Party off so much - the prospect of citizens actually casting the votes to which they are entitled, as though they lived in a democracy or something. It's only natural for the Republicans, who openly hate and revile democracy and good government, to demonize any organization which would try to make that happen.

 

[redfirebird2008]

Voter registration fraud doesn't mean a damn bit of anything. If you register someone to vote 50 times and they only vote 1 time, where's the fraud? If you register a dead person to vote, what's going to happen? Are they magically going to come back from the dead to vote? Here is actual voter fraud:

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200810170676

This is the same kind of crap that was going on in 2004.

 

[Bathead]

All VR fraud does is to skew the numbers to make it difficult to determine exactly how many voters of any party is involved in a particular election, it has absolutely NO effect on the actual election. Voter fraud is an entirely different animal.

 

[Handsome Rob]

Voter registration fraud doesn't mean a damn bit of anything. If you register someone to vote 50 times and they only vote 1 time, where's the fraud? If you register a dead person to vote, what's going to happen? Are they magically going to come back from the dead to vote? Here is actual voter fraud:

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200810170676

This is the same kind of crap that was going on in 2004.

In registering the same person to vote 50 times. That's a misrepresentation (50 times) of a fact (the existence of one person) with a willful intent to deceive (to cause 49 more "people" than actually exist) to the point that damage is caused (to the integrity of the voter registration process).

That's why they call it voter registration fraud--because the act itself is fraudulent.

And here's how you get a dead person to vote--you don't require ID at the polling place. So, you go in and cast your vote. Then, you go hours later and recast your vote as said dead individual. This is a major reason why we should require ID in order to cast a vote, regardless of how many people cry "racism" and "discrimination."

 

[redfirebird2008]

In registering the same person to vote 50 times. That's a misrepresentation (50 times) of a fact (the existence of one person) with a willful intent to deceive (to cause 49 more "people" than actually exist) to the point that damage is caused (to the integrity of the voter registration process).

That's why they call it voter registration fraud--because the act itself is fraudulent.

And here's how you get a dead person to vote--you don't require ID at the polling place. So, you go in and cast your vote. Then, you go hours later and recast your vote as said dead individual. This is a major reason why we should require ID in order to cast a vote, regardless of how many people cry "racism" and "discrimination."

I had to show an ID when I voted in the Texas primary earlier this year. And I seem to remember having to show ID when I voted in the general election 4 years ago.

 

[Handsome Rob]

I had to show an ID when I voted in the Texas primary earlier this year. And I seem to remember having to show ID when I voted in the general election 4 years ago.

You could also show a utility bill with your name and address on it in Texas, and that would pass as ID. If you ask me, that's ridiculous and begging for misuse. A photo ID issued by the state ought to be required. If people want to cry about the poor not being able to afford to buy a state ID, then tack the cost onto the end of one of their welfare checks, specifically denoted as being for state photo ID. If that's what it costs to help ensure the integrity of our voting system, I'd be for it.

 

[redfirebird2008]

You could also show a utility bill with your name and address on it in Texas, and that would pass as ID. If you ask me, that's ridiculous and begging for misuse. A photo ID issued by the state ought to be required. If people want to cry about the poor not being able to afford to buy a state ID, then tack the cost onto the end of one of their welfare checks, specifically denoted as being for state photo ID. If that's what it costs to help ensure the integrity of our voting system, I'd be for it.

I agree. I had no idea that you could use a utility bill as ID. I always just pull out my driver's license when they ask for ID.

 

[Kurosawa]

You could also show a utility bill with your name and address on it in Texas, and that would pass as ID. If you ask me, that's ridiculous and begging for misuse. A photo ID issued by the state ought to be required. If people want to cry about the poor not being able to afford to buy a state ID, then tack the cost onto the end of one of their welfare checks, specifically denoted as being for state photo ID. If that's what it costs to help ensure the integrity of our voting system, I'd be for it.

Do you feel that voters should also receive a receipt once they have voted?

 

[Oddzball]

In registering the same person to vote 50 times. That's a misrepresentation (50 times) of a fact (the existence of one person) with a willful intent to deceive (to cause 49 more "people" than actually exist) to the point that damage is caused (to the integrity of the voter registration process).

That's why they call it voter registration fraud--because the act itself is fraudulent.

And here's how you get a dead person to vote--you don't require ID at the polling place. So, you go in and cast your vote. Then, you go hours later and recast your vote as said dead individual. This is a major reason why we should require ID in order to cast a vote, regardless of how many people cry "racism" and "discrimination."

Unless the registration leads to someone actually voting, the harm done to the system is negligible. It is Election Fraud, where votes are miscounted intentionally where things really can be skewed.

 

[Handsome Rob]

Do you feel that voters should also receive a receipt once they have voted?

Yes. Absolutely. The idea of pure electronic/computerized voting with no printed record gives me chills, and the vote I cast yesterday was that way. For auditing purposes, there should always be some printed receipt or record of the vote cast if the vote is going to be done on computer.

If it were up to me, if electronic/computerized voting was used, two receipts would be printed: one to be kept by election officials and one to be kept by the voter.

 

[Handsome Rob]

Unless the registration leads to someone actually voting, the harm done to the system is negligible. It is Election Fraud, where votes are miscounted intentionally where things really can be skewed.

But the potential for real voter fraud is there, and actual voter fraud can only be easier to commit whenever voter registration fraud is present.

Obviously, actual voter fraud causes more damage because of its direct relation to voting, but that should not minimize the reaction that we should have to voter registration fraud.

 

[jaguarr]

Yes. Absolutely. The idea of pure electronic/computerized voting with no printed record gives me chills, and the vote I cast yesterday was that way. For auditing purposes, there should always be some printed receipt or record of the vote cast if the vote is going to be done on computer.

If it were up to me, if electronic/computerized voting was used, two receipts would be printed: one to be kept by election officials and one to be kept by the voter.

I agree with you on this one. The electronic voting is wayyyyy too susceptible to tampering and hacking. The damn voting machines run Windows operating systems for Christ's sake! The most insecure operating systems on the planet!

jag

 

[Superman4ever]

The REAL Voter Fraud and YOU!

[YT]rRfJtnfQDgg&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/18/172558/32/882/634737[/YT]

 

[MaskedManJRK]

Not sure if this has been posted here, but this appears to be a pretty well-researched story on this ACORN controversy.

http://www.slate.com/id/2202428/

Large-scale, coordinated vote stealing doesn't happen. The incentives—unlike the incentives for registration fraud—just aren't there. In an interview this week with Salon, Lorraine Minnite of Barnard College, who has studied vote fraud systematically, noted that "between 2002 to 2005 only one person was found guilty of registration fraud. Twenty others were found guilty of voting while ineligible and five were guilty of voting more than once. That's 26 criminal voters." Twenty-six criminal voters despite the fact that U.S. attorneys, like David Iglesias in New Mexico, were fired for searching high and low for vote-fraud cases to prosecute and coming up empty. Twenty-six criminal voters despite the fact that five days before the 2006 election, then-interim U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman exuberantly (and futilely) indicted four ACORN workers, even when Justice Department policy barred such prosecutions in the days before elections. RNC General Counsel Sean Cairncross has said he is unaware of a single improper vote cast because of bad cards submitted in the course of a voter-registration effort. Republican campaign consultant Royal Masset says, "n-person voter fraud is nonexistent. It doesn't happen, and ... makes no sense because who's going to take the risk of going to jail on something so blatant that maybe changes one vote?"

 

[Kurosawa]

Yes. Absolutely. The idea of pure electronic/computerized voting with no printed record gives me chills, and the vote I cast yesterday was that way. For auditing purposes, there should always be some printed receipt or record of the vote cast if the vote is going to be done on computer.

If it were up to me, if electronic/computerized voting was used, two receipts would be printed: one to be kept by election officials and one to be kept by the voter.

I agree 100%.

 

[souvlaki]

Holy crap... this is my home town:

GOP voter registration fraud case leads to arrest

GOP voter registration fraud case leads to arrest
Mark Jacoby, who was arrested in Ontario and owns a firm hired by the California Republican Party, violated state registration laws, authorities say.
By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
2:38 PM PDT, October 19, 2008
SACRAMENTO -- The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario late last night on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California.

Jacoby's arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department comes after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by his firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM. The voters said YPM tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. The firm was paid $7 to $12 for every Californian it registered as a member of the GOP.

Several agencies had launched investigations into Jacoby's activities, including the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, which issued the warrant for his arrest earlier this month on felony charges of voter registration fraud and perjury.

Efforts to reach Jacoby were unsuccessful.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fraud20-2008oct20,0,3842357.story

 

[Superman]

Has this been posted?

She has a point.

Opinion
Cynthia Tucker
ACORN HUBBUB IS LATEST EXAMPLE OF REPUBLICAN FEARMONGERING

If Mickey Mouse shows up at the polls in a couple of weeks, John McCain might have cause for the alarm he showed over alleged voter fraud during Wednesday's debate. If Minnie and Goofy also turn up with state-sponsored photo ID, then the Justice Department and the FBI will need to turn their attention away from terrorism, bank robberies and billion-dollar financial scams to investigate fake voters.

But it's quite unlikely that Mickey or Minnie or Goofy will be among the voters lined up on Nov. 4. So McCain's hysterical outburst over a group of activists -- ACORN, he said, "may be destroying the fabric of democracy" -- needs to be understood for what it is: a distraction. The Republican nominee is once again using fear as a tactic to try to win votes.

In the waning days of the presidential campaign, Republicans have made ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, their bete noire. Known for its activism on behalf of the poor, ACORN has long been an object of Republican disdain.

During this election season, ACORN has conducted a registration campaign, hiring workers to sign up new voters. Some workers have decided to fake it, filling in names such as "Mickey Mouse" instead of those of eligible voters. (According to ACORN's leaders, they discovered the fake names and notified authorities. They've also fired workers caught engaged in illegal activities.)

Still, the fake registrations have driven Republicans around the bend. They've been exaggerating voter fraud for decades, and the prospect of losing the Oval Office and congressional seats has them scurrying for excuses. If Democrats win big in this cycle, look for more GOP nuttiness about ACORN and voter fraud.

Fake voters are a myth, a convenient cover for those who really don't believe in the universal franchise. (ACORN has been accused of fraudulent registrations; for actual voter fraud to occur, persons with those fake names would have to show up to cast ballots.) There is no evidence of people coming to the polls using false names and fraudulent IDs.

Ever since the civil rights movement inspired large numbers of black and brown Americans to exercise their right to vote, Republicans have been engaged in efforts to keep them away from the ballot box. Way back in the 1960s, Arizona Republican William Rehnquist -- then a GOP activist, later the chief justice of the United States -- was accused of intimidating Latinos to try to keep them away from the polls. Many Republicans fought the "motor voter" laws, passed during the '90s, that allowed state driver's license bureaus to also register voters. Ease of access encourages less-affluent Americans to vote, and Republicans fear that too many Democratic-leaning voters are in that demographic group.

The GOP might have chosen to appeal to the interests of black and brown voters to lure them into its coalition. Instead, Republican strategists such as the late Lee Atwater perfected the so-called Southern strategy, using racially charged innuendo to appeal to white voters resentful of the civil rights movement. That has kept black voters alienated from the Republican Party. George W. Bush tried to appeal to Latinos with an enlightened push for broad immigration reform, but the narrow-minded Republican base revolted against the measure. That left Latino voters disaffected. With America growing browner, the base of the Republican Party will continue to dwindle.

As the GOP panics over its shrinking base, the smooth cover it has used to justify voter suppression has begun to crumble, revealing its ugly tactics for all to see. Just last week, Georgia Republican Eric Johnson, a state legislator, threatened to end early voting, calling it a "mistake."

Georgia Republicans used to champion early voting because it was convenient for well-educated voters, especially in the GOP-leaning suburbs. But this year, black Georgians have accounted for nearly 40 percent of the early votes, a sign of the excitement over Barack Obama's historic candidacy. Now, Johnson sees early voting as "a 30-day period of time when, if your goal is to undermine democracy, you've got 30 days to do it instead of one."

Don't be fooled. Neither McCain nor Johnson is concerned about democracy. They're worried about Democrats.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucas/200810...armongering;_ylt=Av3Y0cDKPPVbaRSxivSoLAL9wxIF




Now if Palin votes, Would that be the same thing as Goofy voting?