Some Questions
Paul Kiel has an important post on vote caging that raises one big question for me.
Kiel’s post quotes the RNC spokesperson as connecting the vote caging activities in Florida with allegations about ACORN registration drives.
In response to Palast’s story, the Republican spokeswoman denied ina statement that the list had been generated in order to challengevoters. But she went on to argue that Jacksonville “has been affectedby massive fraud efforts this year as a result of the work of ACORN, athird party organization supporting the Kerry campaign and theDemocrats.â€
One of the wonderful prevarications offered by Brad Schlozman is that the ACORN investigation–which in MO found almost nothing and was self-reported–is national.
You’ll recall that Brad Schlozman indicted 4 former ACORN workers (oneof whose name he got wrong) for submitting fraudulent voter reginformation. Well, he strongly suggested that the indictments were notpart of a national investigation (a few Senators hammered him on thispoint–suggesting that, since the investigation was not national, itshouldn’t have been filed before the election). But, at the same time,Schlozman indicated over and over again that the investigation is national.
Does anyone get the feeling that a specious investigation into ACORN is serving as the basis for caging nationwide? Anyone have details of specious ACORN investigations in their local area? I know DeVos crony Secretary of State Land, in MI, has caging all set to go for 2008 (seriously). Is one of the new USAs in MI trumping up an investigation against ACORN to justify the caging?
Hey Marcy, would you consider cross-posting this to Michigan Liberal? It deserves greater attention from both the MDP and Granholm, and I’m sure they’ll see this if it’s at MichLib.
if the list wasn’t important, why were all the repuglican leaders so interested in it ???
repuglican answers don’t square up with repuglican actions
and it’s starting to go beyond a fucking pattern of actions
lying is now the repuglicans’ standard opperating proceedure
and then we get schmucks like tom mcguire wondering why we can’t be civil to these lying fucks
I’d like to meet some of these people in person, so I can spit in their faces
and I’m entirely serious bout that …
Here’s something that might be related. Remember that packet of voter fraud info that was sent from the White House to Matt Friedrich? Mixed in with all the stuff from Wisconsin were two pages about absentee voting for Orleans parish residents in 2006. The connection is that the group primarily responsible for getting evacuees from Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio to Louisiana was, you guessed it, ACORN.
Related subject – Has anyone heard about Dana Simpson, the whistleblower in Alabama, getting her house burned to the ground, and her car stolen and totaled. Seems Rove’s thugs ran into someone whom they didn’t have photos of with a dead hooker, so they’ve turned to more thuggish means of persuasion.
Apparently Harper’s has an article on it. There is a link to a blog except from the article over at Raw Story. Sounds like just the sort of thing we need to throw a little light on.
Dismayed,
Here’s some information:
http://www.timesdaily.com/arti…..MUNITIES01
A couple of thoughts…
I suspect that, even though ACORN is probably targeted, it is not named as such (as per the item that was on the website for the Texas Republican Party).
OT — Murray Waas has sure been quiet. I wonder who he has targeted now???
thanks, WO
I cannot speak to ACORN nationally, but here in NY ACORN tends to hire inexperienced, sometime illetrate, occasionally homeless people to go out and work these registration drives.
In such circumstances you are bound to get some bad paperwork. For republicans trying to float a â€voter fraud†story to over up their very real election fraud and voter suppression activities, ACORN must seem like a dream come true. If all you need is to turn up one or two bad pieces of paperwork, going after ACORN would be like shooting fish in a barrel.
In King County, WA state the new prosecutor is looking into allegations about ACORN. We of course don’t have a permanent federal prosecutor, because ours was pushed out.
Dismayed
William Ockham
so now you have Karl Rove burning down houses in Rainsville, Alabama?!
Oooooo,…, he must be bad, really really bad!
Sounds like another conspiracy!
: )
Louseheadprop, totally agree. Here in Minnesota you don’t need to pre-register, but unregistered voters need help and vouchers at the polls. ACORN could never understand that concept. Why in the hell they could not connect with people who have done this for years, I do not know, but it is dumn. Stupid. It is why we wonder if they want publicity mistakes or votes.
Some people who are meant to be helpful during elections end up making horrible mistakes, although I wonder if they aren’t planned â€mistakes.†In 2000, Florida, in Duval County (Jacksonville), the â€helpers†told new voters in the African-American community to punch out a name on every page. The problem was, there were two-pages of Presidential candidates. 27,000 votes were thrown out, partly because of this directive. The helpers were supposedly Democrats…….
Have we a â€caging watch†nationwide in place for 2008? If not, isn’t that a good net-roots project?
I reported a few weeks ago about the caging issues in Ohio but here is an update at Kos:
Ohio Caging
In Ohio, the focus has been on African American voters.
The GOP scam on ACORN is simple; pick a group that pays people to register voters. It won’t be too hard (with plenty of government resources) to find some â€padding†in their voter registration efforts, where individuals have faked up some names in order to appear successful or get paid more. Then, take the ball and run with it; claim that this was a â€plot†to have actual human beings appear at the polls to vote using those bogus names (this has never been proven to happen, anywhere). Then expand on it and call it a national â€conspiracy†to rig elections. They especially emphasize this among their own, in order to build a mentality that they are â€under siege†with â€Democrat voter fraud†all around them during any election; this helps rationalize going crazy with their own, real, fraud.
to add to sponson’s comments:
consider the repuglican GOTV operations that were guilty of the same shenanigans as ACORN, and we NEVER subject to federal investigation
I know for a fact that four people were convicted of forging repuglican registration cards in San Joaquin County, in California, in the last 5 years (I think it was 2002 primary election, but it might have been 2004)
I don’t see any evidence that the USA for eastern California was ever included in the â€Nationwide†investigation of fradulent registration cases
what the fuck is THAT all about
if you want, I could probaby arrange a post from the guy who was partly responsible for the investigation by the California Secretary of State that led to those convictions
and I can tell you that I personally talked with more than a dozen voters that day who complained that their registration had been changed from something else to repuglican against their wishes,
how is it that these illegal acts were never investigated.
Caging lists are just one part of an organized campaign, now in some trouble.
HAVA (The Help Rightwing Assholes Steal Elections Act) mandated state registration databases which have been used in 2004 already to disenfranchize millions of people. EVERY state is required to put together one of these lists, and guess who they hire to do it for them? ChoicePoint, Diebold, ES&S, etc.
We do have NEW Dem SecStates in CA, FL, and OH. Sounds like replacing the one in Michigan is JOB ONE in that state.
I’ve been close to several decades of registration drives that (usually) targeted low income people. Some observations: on every one where canvassers were paid by the number of registrations they brought in, someone experienced and smart needed to look over every form before it was submitted to election authorities. Not only do the new registrants make mistakes, and often omissions, usually innocently — but also, some registrars will try to inflate their totals by handing in fake forms. Usually the latter are not too swift: 20 registrations with the same hand writing stand out. I’ve known both Democratic Party officials and community organizers who were pros at ferreting out bad registrations. This work takes a certain temperament, but not a rare one. Most folks are pretty careful.
ACORN is no better and no worse than other outfits that do this, but the sheer scale of their efforts probably attracted the Reps notice. Cheers for ACORN for getting under their skin. I’m sure these cases are a fundraising plus for the community organization.