The ACORN registration issues...my take.

[Buddyblazon]

My theory is that Republicans are the ones handing in some of these ridiculous registrations.

They know that even when ACORN identifies bogus registrations...they are still required to hand them in.

What better way to cause headaches. It will also give them an "out" when they lose in November.


Now...my detective skills suck. But is there anyway we could prove my theory?

[BuyingThyme]

1. In my state the forms can be traced back to the person who solicited the registrations.

[Buddyblazon]

2. That's a start...

the people doing the registering would have to be interviewed.

[gateley]

3. Agree -- it's just too stinky not to be a Republican-led attack.

Can you see honest, hard working people registering the names of the Dallas Cowboys? Those who are sincere want to help people vote -- stuff like this wouldn't benefit them in the least, and could jeopardize the legit registrations. It screams Rove.

That's my question, too -- is there anyway we can determine who is responsible for the bogus registrations, and investigate them? And we'd better hurry! I'd think that Obama's camp or the DNC would be all over this, considering the last two elections. As Biden said -- past is prologue.

[99th_Monkey]

4. I worked at ACORN in '04 doing voter registration, and here's my take on it.

This story is 99% hype, exaggeration and outright lies. The truthiest 1% is because a few employees violate ACORNS strict
policies against submitting anything but totally legitimate registrations. Believe me, ACORN staff has been VERY concerned
(for at least 4 years now) that some employees may be tempted to pad their number of registrations, because in order to
stay employed there long term, voter reg workers needed to average a certain number of registrations per day, or face
being let go. This admittedly does put some pressure on workers, which makes sense from ACORN's standpoint in terms of
having standards for the performance of their workers, but it also increased the temptation to "cheat" and make up a few
bogus reg cards to pad their numbers.

And speaking of numbers, the number of new voters registered by ACORN in '04 was 1.3 MILLION, and I have a suspicion
it's WAY more for this election. So let's put this in perspective in terms of the total contribution ACORN makes to
registering Democrats, Republicans, Independents, whatever party; as compared to a tiny percent that slipped through
the cracks and into the hands of some corrupt ReThuglican hack who doesn't mind using their employment as an Elections
Officer to stir this kind of shit-storm up ... rather than elections officials exposing the very intentional and very
conspiratorial election fraud by the GOP. It's just one more distraction, cuz that's all they got.

The other thing to consider here, is that the ONLY "damage done", if any, was a little inconvenience to the Elections
Officials having to go over questionable registrations with ACORN (ACORN flags registration forms they consider
suspicious for any reason, and makes every effort to work with elections officials in the spirit of WANTING clean & fair
elections). Also by state laws ACORN MUST submit EVERY registration card and not filter them out themselves. Such laws
exist so ACORN (or any such group) won't be tempted, for example, to trash all the Republican registrations as "suspicious",
but not the Dems. Bottom line: think about it ... bogus names & addresses to make a quota don't actually ever vote. These
are merely bogus names and addresses with NO actual PERSON attached to them, much less a person "conspiring" to cast a
bogus vote.. NO one is going to try to show up on election day and actually vote at all. Impact on election outcome = ZERO.

This whole "conspiracy" thing is laughable on its face. It's a twisted fantasy, and a total distortion of what's actually going
on here. There is nothing "conspiratorial" here by ACORN to submit bogus registrations with an intent to use them on
election day. In fact, if/when ACORN discovers an employee doing this, they are not only fired ON THE SPOT, but are informed
they have committed a felony and will have no part of it ... i.e. zero tolerance baby.

Now, compare the above so called "voter fraud" with what the ReThuglicans have been up to, not just stealing the '00 and
'04 elections with e-voting machines and systematic massive voter suppression in Ohio by Ken Blackwell in 04 (and these crimes
have been well documented by John Conyers Judiciary committee reports); but also now this year the Rethuglican "voter caging"
operations that are going on in key states (well, at least where they've got ReThuglican Governors or Sec. of States who will play
ball, directly effecting MILLIONS of Democratic voters being purged, most for specious reasons. This kind of fraud clearly
impacts the outcome of elections and is indeed a criminal conspiracy.

This is CLASSIC RW-neocon Rovian politics: do the most criminal things imaginable, and then accuse your political "enemies"
of doing that very same thing, and justify the accusation with some sorry-ass shreds of "evidence" along with 99% lies peddled as
100% true 24/7 on what passes for "news" on TV, etc.

I'm not taking this thing lightly at all; and so wanted to at least set the record straight from my experience with ACORN and
as a voter who's been alarmed and vocal about the need for election integrity ever since the 00 SCOTUS coup for Bush/Cheney.

[SurfingAtWork]

5. I don't care either way if the GOP perpetrated the fraud or not

They should have internal controls, QA checks, and audit procedures that detect stuff like that, before the registration cards ever even reach the registrar's office. That they don't is inexcusable.