FRAUD
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 9:09 pm
DAR
The following is a full page ad in the New York Times paid for by People For the American Way. The only difference is the word Fraud in their ad is, quite appropriately, about ten times larger.
***
FRAUD
You’ve heard a lot about ACORN in the media lately, accused of voter fraud. But it’s news fraud — a false story instigated by right-wing operatives.
The wild charges made against ACORN aren’t true. Period. It’s the story the right wing wants you to hear and the media is reporting as unchallenged fact.
ACORN hired 13,000 workers to register voters. And unfortunately a few bad apples turned in registration forms with inaccurate and even made-up names.
Here’s what’s missing from the story: In most states, ACORN is required to submit all forms they collect, whether they appear to be bogus or not. That way election officials, not independent groups, can decide who gets registered and who doesn’t. ACORN spends millions to flag cards that may not be legitimate. And many of the irregularities you’ve heard about only came to light because ACORN itself flagged the cards!
Meanwhile, ACORN has successfully registered over 1 million legitimate voters — Democrats, Independents and Republicans. And there are no reported instances of organized double-voting — so there’s no chance this will affect the election.
So what’s the real story?
The right wing wants to discourage low-income people and African Americans from voting. And attacking ACORN helps justify their real efforts to suppress the vote — which are well under way.
* In Indiana, the right is considering using home foreclosure as a reason to prevent legitimate registration.
* In Philadelphia, an anonymous flier targeting African-American neighborhoods falsely warns that voters with outstanding traffic tickets may be arrested if they go to the polls.
* In Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State rejected more than 6,000 citizens’ registration cards because of minor errors like not marking a checkbox.
Last week, Fox referenced ACORN 770 times on the air. That’s to be expected, but then CNN and others parroted the same right-wing talking points.
Instead of hearing about the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who will be prevented from casting a vote this year, you heard about fictional people who will never cast a vote.
And that’s the real fraud.
***
See the real ad here.
DAR
Here's the blurb they sent me:
***
I'm not going to sit idly by while good people are thrown under the bus ... especially if that bus is John McCain's "Straight Talk Express." And I am not -- I repeat, NOT -- going to let the Right steal another election by demonizing community organizers while doing all they can to disenfranchise voters.
That's why People For the American Way is not taking the attacks on ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) lying down, and we're not going to let the Right's latest distraction work. We're taking out a full page ad in the New York Times to tell the truth about ACORN, the myth of "widespread voter fraud" and the actual voter suppression being perpetrated by the Right. Check out the ad and find out what you can do to help with these efforts at www.PFAW.org/ACORN.
ACORN has tirelessly worked to uplift the less fortunate and advocated for improved housing, a fair and living wage, and yes, continues to fight to give a voice to the underserved by promoting civic engagement and voter empowerment. John McCain used to know that but he seems to have forgotten.
During Wednesday's presidential debate, McCain was again over the top, saying ACORN "may be perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." No, Senator McCain, the fraud is GOP attempts to challenge the registrations of eligible voters who are on the verge of losing their homes to foreclosure ... the fraud is right-wing efforts to purge thousands of eligible voters from the voter rolls ... the fraud is the long history of your party's attempts to resurrect Jim Crow.
Let's set the record straight. ACORN plays by the rules, but they register voters the Right would rather exclude, so they are a perfect target in the ongoing effort to stoke paranoia over so-called "widespread voter fraud" (a proven myth). Out of the 13,000 field workers ACORN hired in its drive to register 1.3 million voters, a small fraction submitted inappropriate registration cards. In most cases, ACORN was required by law to submit these incorrect forms, along with the valid forms, to election officials, and in most cases, the incorrect forms had been flagged for officials by ACORN as problematic. But bad registration forms don't add up to "voter fraud."
The Bush administration has spent a good deal of time on fishing expeditions to find problems with groups like ACORN that register voters. In fact, they fired US Attorneys for refusing to participate in this partisan witch hunt.
Using "voter fraud" to distract from real voter suppression is nothing new. But it's still extremely troubling that the McCain-Palin campaign has decided to put party before country and not denounce the GOP's attempts to squash voter participation. I don't think the American people are buying any of this. But even if scapegoating ACORN doesn't work, the Right will have won if they are successful in getting people to look the other way on the real voter suppression in which they are aggressively engaged.
It's up to us to make sure the distraction doesn't work.
People For the American Way
The following is a full page ad in the New York Times paid for by People For the American Way. The only difference is the word Fraud in their ad is, quite appropriately, about ten times larger.
***
FRAUD
You’ve heard a lot about ACORN in the media lately, accused of voter fraud. But it’s news fraud — a false story instigated by right-wing operatives.
The wild charges made against ACORN aren’t true. Period. It’s the story the right wing wants you to hear and the media is reporting as unchallenged fact.
ACORN hired 13,000 workers to register voters. And unfortunately a few bad apples turned in registration forms with inaccurate and even made-up names.
Here’s what’s missing from the story: In most states, ACORN is required to submit all forms they collect, whether they appear to be bogus or not. That way election officials, not independent groups, can decide who gets registered and who doesn’t. ACORN spends millions to flag cards that may not be legitimate. And many of the irregularities you’ve heard about only came to light because ACORN itself flagged the cards!
Meanwhile, ACORN has successfully registered over 1 million legitimate voters — Democrats, Independents and Republicans. And there are no reported instances of organized double-voting — so there’s no chance this will affect the election.
So what’s the real story?
The right wing wants to discourage low-income people and African Americans from voting. And attacking ACORN helps justify their real efforts to suppress the vote — which are well under way.
* In Indiana, the right is considering using home foreclosure as a reason to prevent legitimate registration.
* In Philadelphia, an anonymous flier targeting African-American neighborhoods falsely warns that voters with outstanding traffic tickets may be arrested if they go to the polls.
* In Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State rejected more than 6,000 citizens’ registration cards because of minor errors like not marking a checkbox.
Last week, Fox referenced ACORN 770 times on the air. That’s to be expected, but then CNN and others parroted the same right-wing talking points.
Instead of hearing about the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who will be prevented from casting a vote this year, you heard about fictional people who will never cast a vote.
And that’s the real fraud.
***
See the real ad here.
DAR
Here's the blurb they sent me:
***
I'm not going to sit idly by while good people are thrown under the bus ... especially if that bus is John McCain's "Straight Talk Express." And I am not -- I repeat, NOT -- going to let the Right steal another election by demonizing community organizers while doing all they can to disenfranchise voters.
That's why People For the American Way is not taking the attacks on ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) lying down, and we're not going to let the Right's latest distraction work. We're taking out a full page ad in the New York Times to tell the truth about ACORN, the myth of "widespread voter fraud" and the actual voter suppression being perpetrated by the Right. Check out the ad and find out what you can do to help with these efforts at www.PFAW.org/ACORN.
ACORN has tirelessly worked to uplift the less fortunate and advocated for improved housing, a fair and living wage, and yes, continues to fight to give a voice to the underserved by promoting civic engagement and voter empowerment. John McCain used to know that but he seems to have forgotten.
During Wednesday's presidential debate, McCain was again over the top, saying ACORN "may be perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." No, Senator McCain, the fraud is GOP attempts to challenge the registrations of eligible voters who are on the verge of losing their homes to foreclosure ... the fraud is right-wing efforts to purge thousands of eligible voters from the voter rolls ... the fraud is the long history of your party's attempts to resurrect Jim Crow.
Let's set the record straight. ACORN plays by the rules, but they register voters the Right would rather exclude, so they are a perfect target in the ongoing effort to stoke paranoia over so-called "widespread voter fraud" (a proven myth). Out of the 13,000 field workers ACORN hired in its drive to register 1.3 million voters, a small fraction submitted inappropriate registration cards. In most cases, ACORN was required by law to submit these incorrect forms, along with the valid forms, to election officials, and in most cases, the incorrect forms had been flagged for officials by ACORN as problematic. But bad registration forms don't add up to "voter fraud."
The Bush administration has spent a good deal of time on fishing expeditions to find problems with groups like ACORN that register voters. In fact, they fired US Attorneys for refusing to participate in this partisan witch hunt.
Using "voter fraud" to distract from real voter suppression is nothing new. But it's still extremely troubling that the McCain-Palin campaign has decided to put party before country and not denounce the GOP's attempts to squash voter participation. I don't think the American people are buying any of this. But even if scapegoating ACORN doesn't work, the Right will have won if they are successful in getting people to look the other way on the real voter suppression in which they are aggressively engaged.
It's up to us to make sure the distraction doesn't work.
People For the American Way