Everyday we are hearing new stories about the possibility of voter fraud in the upcoming election. Some guy in Ohio was bribed by ACORN employees with cigarettes and money to register to vote 73 times. ACORN attempted to register Mickey Mouse in Orange County, Florida. Officials in Ohio caught someone registered numerous times in different locations attempting to vote. The news is talking of multiple registrations and bogus voter registration cards being sent to residences where the name on the card does not reside. ACORN has signed up 4,000 supposed voters in Ohio that has now been deemed suspect by the state. Lake County, Indiana has found 2,100 of 5,000 voter registration applications submitted by ACORN to be bogus.
Did I mention the Mr. Obama campaign recently gave ACORN $832,000, then initially lied about it to Federal Election Commission? How about Mr. Obama commending the leaders of this group earlier in the campaign when he lauded them for being "smack dab in the middle of the effort." To make matters worse, it has been estimated that Acorn received federal monies totally $16 million in the past 10 years. In other words, our tax dollars have been paying a slanted agency to cheat. Even better, the recent bailout and the money attached to it will give groups like ACORN even more.
What is going on in our country? Where are the major media outlets that should be investigating this? Where is Keith Olbermann and Rachel Madcow on this subject? Why are people not rising up who want to see every registered, breathing voter have his vote count? This is the type of thing you expect in a third world country, Africa, or Cuba.
Finally, the Obama campaign is now distancing itself from ACORN, claiming Mr. Obama never organized with it and has nothing to do with illegal voter registration. Yet it's disingenuous to channel cash into an operation with a history of fraud and then claim you're shocked to discover reports of fraud. As with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers, Mr. Obama was happy to associate with ACORN when it suited his purposes. But now that he's on the brink of the Presidency, he wants to disavow his ties to help protect his shrinking lead.
The Justice Department and FBI need to pull their pants up and treat these fraud reports as something larger than a few local violators. The question is whether ACORN is systematically subverting U.S. election law on the taxpayer's dime. I also heard this morning that ACORn has been working "with the Democratic Party" to mass register voters in the Chattanooga area. That would explain the harassing tactics I have witnessed recently. I got behind a truck on the way into work this morning that had a fitting bumper sticker, it read "10 out of 10 Dead People Prefer Obama."
Seems like that could be truer than we will ever realize.
Giselle Denton
Chattanooga
giselle.denton@yahoo.com
* * *
I recently returned from a business trip and, when going through my mail, found two voter registration cards. Both cards were for men I did not know, but both where using my address.
Concerned about voter fraud, I called the Hamilton County Election Commission. They showed no concern at all. When I asked if this could be fraud, they answered that they had a lot of new people working.
I could believe this was a mistake if there had been only one, but it is hard for me to believe that both were done in error. If so, they need to be more selective in their hiring process in the future.
Melba Wolfe
Chattanooga
* * *
The Democratic Party has done this forever, just insert mafia everywhere you see ACORN and you have the reason Kennedy was elected.
It's really nothing new. All you can do is get out and do your civic duty and register and vote.
The problem is not that people do these kind of things - the problem is too many people now have the attitude of my one vote won't make a difference and stay home.
All of the publicity regarding ACORN will hopefully have the unintended effect of getting actual citizens out to vote against this kind of tomfoolery.
Mark Maynor
S. Winer Drive
mark.maynor@gmail.com
* * *
Concerned about voter fraud? Sign up to be a poll watcher.
There are 127 precincts in Hamilton County. There are something on the order of 88 polling places. Each one can use at least one poll watcher.
Concerned about dead people voting? Sign up to be a poll watcher.
Concerned about poll workers "helping" voters? Sign up to be a poll watcher.
Concerned about citizens voting more than once? Sign up to be a poll watcher.
Concerned about ineligible parties voting? Sign up to be a poll watcher.
Concerned about vote tallies? Sign up to be a poll watcher.
I would, however, caution anyone volunteering for poll watcher duty as a Republican. Do not ask for a set of those double naught spy shades so you can look cool. You might be in for a surprise.
Royce E. Burrage, Jr.
Royce@OfficiallyChapped.org
* * *
C'mon, everyone, can anyone supply one single case of Republican voter
fraud? All I can remember is the dead people voting in Chicago (Obama
Central) in 1960, and in all the years since, it's 'always' Democrat
fraud....and now we have ACORN registering dead people, Micky Mouse, the Chicago Cubs, illegal aliens, convicted felons and little kids, and, in some cases, getting homeless people registered to vote many several
times for a few bucks and cigarettes.
Maybe I shouldn't clue you in, but no one will take your party seriously
until you shake this complete dishonesty.
John R. Smickle
Chattanooga
jsbottomfeeder@juno.com
* * *
Since this thread is based mostly on half-truths and media spin I wanted to point out a few things. In response to Ms. Denton's post: you complain that one person was registered 73 times, but really it doesn't matter if they were registered a million times. They still only get one vote regardless of how many times they registered. Also, you have to show ID to vote in Florida, so unless Mickey Mouse shows up with matching ID's he wouldn't be able to vote.
I hear a lot of conservatives complain about the media, but this is one instance that is definitely in their favor (I'm not a liberal FYI, I just pointed that out because of most Republican’s frustration with how "enamored" the media is with Obama). Even Ms. Denton said, "The news is talking of multiple registrations and bogus voter registration cards being sent to residences where the name on the card does not reside." Ok then, we're either going off what the news says or we're not, you can't have it both ways. You can't cry foul when the media says something good about Obama, and then sound off about how terrible he is when they say something bad about him.
Almost every instance where these voter registration (not actual votes, but registration) frauds are claimed have actually been turned in by ACORN themselves. Take the instance in Washington where canvassers went through the phone book and filled out registrations. Well ACORN then went to the election commission and reported this. The media then says that ACORN is turning in fraudulent voter registrations and everyone runs wild with it. There is no rampant voter fraud. That's why the Justice Department and FBI aren't taking action. Think about it. Seriously, take your own advice, don't listen to what the media is telling you, and do research on ACORN.
This is an excerpt from an article about all the ACORN hoopla. The man who wrote the article is Brad Friedman.
ACORN verifies the legitimacy of every registration its canvassers collect. If they can't authenticate the registration, or it's incomplete or questionable in other ways, they flag that form as problematic ("fraudulent," "incomplete," et cetera). They then hand in all registration forms, even the problematic ones, to elections officials, as they are required to do by law. In almost every case where you've heard about fraud by ACORN, it's because ACORN itself notified officials about the fraud that's been perpetrated on them by rogue canvassers. Most officials who run to the media screaming "ACORN is committing fraud" know all of the above but don't bother to share those facts with the media they've run to. None of this is about voter fraud. None of it. Where any fraud has occurred, it's voter registration fraud and has resulted in exactly zero fraudulent votes.
You'll hear that Donald Duck, Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy, Mickey Mouse and (new this year) the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team have all had fraudulent registrations submitted in their names. That's true. And we know this, why? Because ACORN told officials about it when they followed the law and turned in those registrations, flagged as fraudulent.
If you don't believe me, or Mr. Friedman, do the research yourself, but perpetuating the lies of the media is something I've heard you complain about before Ms. Denton. In this instance you are doing the same thing.
Tyler Fordice
tfordice@live.com
* * *
Now folks, stop and think for a minute. If the Democrats are so experienced at voter fraud, do you think we would have allowed for the election and re-election of President Bush? Think about it.
Cecilia Lewis
* * *
Bring back the poll tax and you'll finally see who wants to register and vote. It will make the elections more meaningful, put dollars in the system and eliminate most of the fraudulent voters. This all began when the tax was repealed.
Terry Bridgman
Rossville
* * *
Voter fraud and corruption in all levels of government seems out of control. Every year, it seems there are state legislators, school board members, and sheriffs going to jail for blatant acts absent of any form of ethics and illegal. I understand why one writer used the term mafia, because there is organization to the cover unethical or illegal actions.
When a simple inquiry into government public records are met with battleship defensiveness, something is up. An example is getting publicly funded Erlanger Hospital records, or a simple request for vacation pay accumulations from the public school system. Obtaining these records saved taxpayers a lot of money. When a public entity will consult attorneys before they will let the public look at records, we have a problem.
Voter fraud is just another form of corruption, but is more offensive because it betrays the very fabric of our constitution by taking away citizens’ legitimate right to choose the leaders, and is not limited to elected persons in government.
Allison Graham
* * *
It comes as no surprise that ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is trying to cheat the electoral system by registering phony voters to sway the 2008 election.
This is just one more page in ACORN's corrupt history, which already includes election fraud investigations in at least a dozen states, a shameful embezzlement cover-up scandal, hypocritical and oppressive employment practices, and a politically divisive agenda driven by a handful of extreme activists.
Now, ACORN has been caught attempting to register Mickey Mouse to vote in Florida and the Dallas Cowboys in Nevada, among hundreds of other phony voters. The American people should stop tolerating a corrupt organization which is determined to use illegal methods to tilt the political process in their favor.
Tim Miller, Communications Director
Employment Policies Institute
Washington, D.C.
miller@epionline.org
* * *
Cecelia, I did think about it and concluded that you Democrats are still mad about that election because of problem in Florida with the vote count. ACORN became your revenge; now it's your achilles heel.
Jim Ashley
jashley41@comcast.net
* * *
When discussing ACORN, it’s important to clarify the difference between voter fraud and voter registration fraud. What you are talking about is "voter registration fraud." Voter fraud would include things like: voting in multiple precincts, impersonating a voter, disposing of ballots, tampering with voter machines, etc. Voter registration fraud includes attempting to register fake individuals.
ACORN is required by law to turn in all registrations, fraudulent or not. They would be acting fraudulently if they disposed or withheld the registrations they believed were not real. I would speculate that ACORN has a desire to get real registered voters out there and voting, having useless registrations helps no one. The votes are what count. The issue with ACORN is their hired help. They pay employees per registered voter. These employees are the ones turning in fraudulent registrations so they can get more money from ACORN. This was fraud committed against ACRON, not by ACORN. ACORN’s hiring practices are up for critique but saying they are only trying to get fake people to vote is simply not correct.
Every time I have voted in the past 10 years I was required to show a state issued identification and was then compared to a printed list that had to include my name and address. Simply having a voter registration card is insufficient. Each voting precinct has a list of their designated and registered voters as well as their addresses to compare with your state issued identification. In order for a fake individual to vote, they must have a fake voter registration card, a fake address and a fake state issued identification. Is this likely to happen? No. Nobody has ever shown that voter registration fraud has an impact on election results.
Concerning “ties” to ACORN, maybe you should question McCain’s ties, since the organization is so terrible. He was their keynote speaker at an event in 2006, where he commended and supported their efforts. Is this worrisome? No. Obama represented ACORN along with the U.S. Department of Justice concerning the Motor Voter Law in the mid 90’s. Is this worrisome? No. You can tie both candidates to this organization for the same reason; they support organizations that want to help low to moderate income individuals in areas such as neighborhood safety, health care, predatory lending, increased wages and voter registration.
If Mickey Mouse’s vote is counted, then you may have reason for concern. Although, I fear you may not be too concerned if his vote were to go to McCain. Speculating that voter fraud is already happening and will be happening is simply the speculation of scared Republicans.
If McCain wins, will this all be the result of voter fraud?
Elizabeth Hendrix
Chattanooga
* * *
Well...Giselle, Mark, John, Tim and others of your ilk, you have probably heard by now that Mr. John McCain met with and gave the key note address to an ACORN rally. He also praised their efforts. Not sure if he took a direct contribution to do so but there sure is a bunch of collective hypocrisy on your side of the aisle.
Mike Lawrence
ftdoc@joimail.com
* * *
Alright, my over-reactionary friends in Chattanooga. How many of you honestly think that Mickey Mouse is going to show up at your local polling place and demand his right to vote? How many of you think that the starting offensive linemen of the Dallas Cowboys are going to request a ballot in Nevada? Do any of you really believe that the fictitious person who was registered numerous times will try to exercise his collective right to the franchise?
Me think that maybe Fox News has a very high viewership in Chattanooga?
There has been no voter fraud, since I don't think there has been a vote yet. What has occurred is voter registration fraud, and one of its victims has been groups like ACORN. They have paid people to sign up prospective voters and have been hoodwinked. Regardless of this, federal law requires them to turn in the registration forms to the voter registration offices. Do I think they need to revise their practices? Certainly, but so far, no one has demonstrated anything more than antidotal evidence of registration fraud.
Now, if you want to see evidence of a conspiracy to commit voter fraud, take a look at the Republican Party of Michigan. They had plans to challenge people who had recently been evicted from their homes as a result of the ongoing mortgage crisis. Their reasoning, you see, is that someone who was registered at an address where they no longer lived, regardless of the reason, should not be able to vote. How many of you are upset about that? Fortunately, a federal judge put a stop to that plan, but I am confident that more Karl Rove-ian schemes are afoot.
So, chill out, Fox News fanatics. If Mickey does show up, just have him sign with his little mouse paw. You should be confident that a rat will vote Republican anyway.
Charlie Neff
Los Angeles, Ca.
charlie.neff@verizon.net