LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman. Winner 2013 Webby Awards for Best Political Website
May 19, 2013

 Choose a size
Text Size

Trending:     chris hedges     economy     elizabeth warren     politics     robert scheer
Most Read

Letter From Birmingham Jail

Truthdigger of the Week: Sen. Angus King

Chilling: Arctic Tundra ‘Will Turn to Forest’

'The Daily Show': Stewart Slams Hypocrites Cheney and Rumsfeld

'Left, Right & Center': The White House Scandal Trifecta

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
 * NEW! * Chilling: Arctic Tundra ‘Will Turn to Forest’
How the IRS’ Nonprofit Division Got So Dysfunctional

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
Act of Congress
Daily Rituals
The Girls of Atomic City

Digs

Truthdig Bazaar
Speechwright

Speechwright

By William F. Gavin

PornoPower

The Pornography of Power

By Robert Scheer
$11.89

more items

 
Ear to the Ground

ACORN’s Dilemma

Email this item Email    Print this item Print    Share this item... Share

Posted on Oct 16, 2008

John McCain has accused the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now of trying to commit “one of the greatest frauds in voter history” by submitting fraudulent voter registration forms, but ACORN says it was required by law to submit the forms. The Center for Investigative Reporting explains.


Center for Investigative Reporting:

But Nevada’s law also forbids “knowingly falsifying an application to register to vote.” Ostensibly that’s why the secretary of state is looking into ACORN’s records to begin with: The group turned in obviously false registration forms. But that’s a separate part of the law and does not change ACORN’s obligation to turn in all the forms. In short, it’s not clear that in Nevada ACORN was wrong to turn in the forms; indeed, it appears the group was trying to follow the law.

While voter registration law does vary state by state, ACORN follows the same procedure across the country. All of the secretary of state’s offices PaperTrail contacted, however, said that third-party registration groups should turn in fraudulent-looking forms, but can flag them to alert election officials to their suspicions.

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement


New and Improved Comments

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

OzarkMichael's avatar

By OzarkMichael, October 17, 2008 at 11:22 am Link to this comment

Here is a telling remark from a Truthdigger that really helps explain the problem:

after all the media has no one who resembles an investigative journalist anymore.

Excellent point. It explains why the conservative college kids and the bloggers are the ones who have to uncover how Acorn is creating voter fraud. Otherwise it would go on and on.

another Truthdigger: With the very low instance of voter fraud it is a non issue

Low instance? as in up to 200,000 questionable votes in Ohio? One of the talking heads running this scam has been caught breaking the law intentionally.

Not a single condemnation in the original piece or in any post from you guys. Not even a few words to indicate that you even understand what the ACORN problem is about.

Why is this not a bad thing to you people? I reckon because the ‘evil republicans cheated before so we need to cheat now.’ is your excuse.

Looking to stop the dangerous bad guys? The fascists? Ok, good for you.

Willing to overlook voter fraud in order to get it done? Listen to me and I will teach you something…

How you win informs everyone of what sort of people you are and what sort of government you want. A victory gained in such a fashion will be no victory for justice, nor will it lead to a better government.

So its time to look in the mirror. 

You have become the thing you fear.

Report this

By vthom, October 17, 2008 at 10:42 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

All it takes is a blank Acorn form, a copier, sleeve of paper, activist with a pencil stub, and a phone book: there’s your “ACORN registration fraud”.

Next imply that registering is voting, the voters are black, etc, etc. You get this year’s Swift-Boat and the chaos needed to justify random voter purges, S-O-S! Rove’s new job.

Report this

By John H, October 17, 2008 at 9:43 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The problem is the Republican party does not believe in obeying the law. They believe in helping the party no matter what the law says. They assume everyone else does the same. Since Republicans would throw out registration form they find “questionable” they think ACORN would do the same thing. Therefore, if ACORN handed in questionable forms they must be trying to pull fraud.

Report this

By Rodger Lemonde, October 17, 2008 at 6:27 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The republican party claiming voter fraud.
After the 2000 election worked so well for them. They are looking to make sure that we never have an fair election again. With the very low instance of voter fraud it is a non issue that they raise to disenfranchise as many as they can.
Our safety valve on this is the lame execution of the project.

Report this

By AT, October 17, 2008 at 6:26 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The spiritual son of LEE , Karl is at it again.I was wondering who ordered the FBI to infiltrate ACORN. But watch out Rove’s operatives. Guess who are taping you? IT’S gEORGE wALKER bUSH, WHO IS ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING (It’s the president not Cheney and not Paulson, who are ,at best, main accomplices) A few weeks left, he’s still trying to confound critics and hide his crimes by issuing signed directives telling Congress not to obey the laws.

Report this

By knute, October 16, 2008 at 9:04 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The GOP has for 8 yr.s now under the watchfull eye of K. Rove and his dutiful underlings all across the country gone about in an attempt to remove as many as they can of all who would lean democratic from the voter roles. The HAVA Help America Vote Act was more of the same…give your policy decision a name that implies one thiing while you do exactly the opposite. They fired some attorneys for not more zealously going after allegations of voter fraud, people using wrong names, these have usually turned up to be nothing more then distractions , and that is the whole idea. We are I guess all distracted too much to see that the GOP machinery is busy removing tens of thousands in state after state and Its called Election Fraud…....Its a crime. They’ve been getting away with this for 8 years now. This fixation by the GOP and McBush is just more of the same…its pure Rove. You make allegations , they don’t have to have any facts behind them, after all the media has no one who resembles an investigative journalist anymore. You just toss it out there and if you say it enough, over and over it will stick on people to lazy to think for themselves.

Report this
Newsletter

sign up to get updates


 
 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.