About the ACORN voter registration scandal
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Acorn, has been linked to widespread voter registration fraud. Among the fraudulent registrations was one for a man in Orange County, Florida with 21 applications. And how about the industrious registrar who registered the entire starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys … in Las Vegas …where none of them live. Yeah, that was a big, fat tipoff that something funny was going on.
In just over a week, the investigation has spread from Nevada, to Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, North Carolina, New Mexico, Michigan, Colorado, Indiana and Missouri.
The McCain campaign, while professing outrage, is gleeful over this new “evidence” against Barack Obama. Because Obama conducted two one-hour leadership training sessions for ACORN in the ‘90s—without pay—the McCain campaign asserts that he’s paid for the organization to register thousands of phantom voters, thereby assuring his presidency.
I used to volunteer at voter registration drives, and I’m old fashioned and idealistic enough to believe that voting is a citizen’s responsibility. I support efforts to register more voters … real voters … one at a time.
But here’s the thing: The ACORN employees are minimum wage, hourly employees who have quotas; they aren’t highly trained, highly qualified organization leaders. Already, ACORN has identified and fired a number of employees involved in the fraud who were copying names, addresses and phone numbers from the phone book and turning them in as newly registered voters. And, it was ACORN who notified authorities of the fraud.
Does ACORN have some huge problems with vetting, training and supervising their employees? Obviously. Does that mean Barack Obama is trying to undermine democracy steal the election. No.
Sarah Palin poked fun at Obama’s community organizing resume, but the fact is, he was responsible for registering more than 150,000 voters from Chicago’s South Side—a predominantly African-American enclave of previously disenfranchised citizens. Because of Obama’s work, Sen. Carol Moseley Brown became the first African-American woman in the US Senate. And that was just cause for Palin’s derision?
McCain and Palin have gone too far in their accusations. At recent McCain-Palin rallies, their supporters have cried out “Hang him!” and said Obama is an Arab and a terrorist. The crowds have become so bloodthirsty McCain has admonished them. But the ACORN scandal is too juicy not to try to link it with Obama, even without proof.
The whole thing stinks, and it’s a big part of the reason so many people (including me) are swearing off political news until Election Day.