There's no evidence any fictional voters ever cast a ballot. Yet the Republicans are hammering on ACORN, saying that the voter fraud which was perpetrated on ACORN by people who they hired to get registrations is systematic. It strains credulity, considering that ACORN flags suspicious registrations.
But there is real election fraud going on.
Digging through government records, the Kennedy-Palast team discovered that, in 2004, a GOP scheme called "caging" ultimately took away the rights of 1.1 million voters. The Rolling Stone duo predict that, this November 4, it will be far worse.
In contrast to fraudulent registrations, which result in negligible, if any, actual subversion of elections, there are many tactics which are much more effective at manipulating elections. They're more effective because it's so much easier to suppress a vote than it is to create a vote out of whole cloth. Since Republicans benefit when certain vulnerable segments of the population are underrepresented at the polls, they can engage in voter caging, and even use the chilling effect of intimidating voters at the polls by engaging in individual voter challenges.
There's a 15 minute video on http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/ that details some of the basis for believing that Democrats are going to have to work hard to avoid having the election stolen.
To win, they may not just have to have more voters prefer their candidate, but also be able to overcome the election fraud tactics.
Posted by James at October 20, 2008 11:26 AMACORN is a pre-emptive attack and a smoke screen to protect the real voter fraud that you are pointing out here. Thanks for doing that.
I keep pushing it, but, really, take a look at Velvet Revolutions because they have some great interviews with a computer security specialist regarding Diebold. Very eye opening.
Posted by: rui at October 20, 2008 4:53 PMThis late-in-the-game pathetic tactic is almost not worth talking about.
I give you a bit from an article in this week's Economist:
ACORN
Mickey Mouse for Obama?
Oct 16th 2008 | AUSTIN
From The Economist print edition
http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12432392
[...]
"Still, voting fraud on an election-changing scale seems unlikely, and unnecessary too, given the huge margins that Mr Obama is racking up in many states. To pull it off in the way ACORN is being accused of, a schemer would have to get many thousands of fake registrations past the officials. Then the actual ballots would have to be cast, which would require thousands of impersonators actually to turn up and vote. (Fraudulent absentee ballots, which could be mailed in, are a different proposition, and are subject to their own checks.) The evidence tends to suggest that ACORN has some bad management flaws, not that it is some kind of massive and mildly incompetent conspiracy."
[...]
You're right Patti, any critical thinker can see through it, but they're not aiming this at us. They are aiming at the hard liners, it's a way to get them to gel when they raise election fraud charges after they lose this election. It will also allow Rush (and his cronies) to denounce Obamma's presidency as illegitimate.
What scares me is that hard line republicans are easy to piss off and scare, and they have guns!
Some will even mutilate themselves to discredit Obama, so yeah, it's going to be a long eight (I hope!) years for them.
Posted by: Julie at October 24, 2008 3:09 PMGuns schmuns. I have a shod foot that I'm ready to put up many asses!
Posted by: Patti M. at October 24, 2008 6:49 PM