GOP sound and fury about ACORN is a little bit nutty

News Type: Event — Seeded on Wed Oct 1, 2008 3:44 PM EDT

Article Source: michiganmessenger.com

politics, obama, barack-obama, mccain, republican, john-mccain, gop, acorn, voter-fraud, voter-registration, community-organizer, vote-suppression, project-vote, honest-and-open-election-committee

Seeded by iarnuocon

In the wake of allegations about the use of foreclosure lists to challenge voters at the polls, the Michigan GOP and the McCain campaign are issuing charges of voter fraud against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a national nonprofit group that has been organizing in neighborhoods around the country for years. But a review of the allegations, along with interviews with independent political observers, shows the charges are largely baseless.

...Danforth and other ACORN critics note correctly that a significant number — typically around 30 percent — of those voter registration applications end up being rejected. About 3 percent to 5 percent of the applications collected are rejected because they're incomplete, and less than 1 percent are deemed illegible. About 25 percent of applications are rejected because they are duplicates.

But the rejection rate is not a sign of wrongdoing, say voting experts.

...Gerald Hebert, a retired U.S. Department of Justice voting rights expert who served under Republican and Democratic presidents, says the kind of fraud that the GOP is charging ACORN with — deliberately registering fictitious people or registering the same person in two different precincts — is extremely rare. Hebert is now executive director of the Campaign Legal Center in Washington. The nonprofit organization was founded by Trevor Potter, who represents the McCain campaign in lawsuits over voter suppression.

In the case of ACORN activists convicted of fraud in Missouri, Hebert says ACORN itself had "actually turned those people in to the local district attorney and to the feds, saying these people had been engaging in fictitious registration forms. None of those people actually voted, and none of them even got registered, because ACORN called attention to the fact that these were likely bogus applications."

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iarnuocon

GOP voter suppression is both far more prevalent and far easier to prove than supposed Democrat fraudulent voting. So says Gerald Hebert. But what would he know? He's just a voting rights expert.

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3 votes

#1 - Wed Oct 1, 2008 3:47 PM EDT

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Investigation of ACORN finds no evidence of voter fraud	Michigan Messenger	Wed Oct 1	0
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Lou Dobbs: 'My Colleagues in the Media Are Absolutely Biased' \| NewsBusters.org	newsbusters.org	Tue Sep 30	0

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GOP sound and fury about ACORN is a little bit nutty

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