I tried to be cute in the title but this group seems to continually run afoul of elections law in state after state. And it’s made a name for itself enough that I’m getting plenty of interesting items in my e-mail I thought were worth sharing.
Let me introduce you to a organization called Americans for Limited Government. They’re on the case with a nice summary of ACORN’s illegal voter registration activities throughout the country, which even briefly goes into their history. Bill Wilson, ALG head, also states:
“This appears to be a concerted, coordinated effort to elect Senator Barack Obama to be president by whatever means necessary. If law enforcement officials do not act quickly, the entire legitimacy of the 2008 election will be undermined.”
“Paul Ogden recently tabulated that over 30,000 more people than were eligible to register in Marion County/Indianapolis were somehow registered to vote. This is just a single example, but there’s something very fishy going on, and it’s got ACORN written all over it.”
Naturally, Indiana is considered a state in play so ACORN focused on that area. It’s interesting to note that they only want more voter registration in states they consider questionable for Barack Obama, so I doubt ACORN has been in Maryland much.
What’s really fishy is another item I received in my e-mail about a group called StopACORN.org. It was a solicitation to sign a petition and learn more about the group – oddly enough, I get an error message (Sorry. We can’t find “stopacorn.org”. There was a problem loading your page. Try retyping the URL in the browser address bar above or, visiting a related link below) regardless of whether I try to go directly there or through a sister site called NetRightNation. Could it be there’s some hacking going on? Wouldn’t surprise me.
(Strangely enough, the related websites all push mortgages. Can you say ‘Bailout 2.0″?)
So perhaps I’ll send off an e-mail to the person who let me know about the effort and see if he’s aware of it; meanwhile I’ll back up my site – just in case.
And before all you folks on the left side of the blogosphere get your panties in a wad, be advised that I’m all for registering new people to vote and I keep a couple new registration forms around in case I run into someone who mentions it. What I don’t like is groups like ACORN who are abusing the system for their own ends. Every voter who’s eligible should be registered, but when someone sends in 100 phony registrations it’s possible they’re cancelling your legal vote out. It’s also why I support efforts for photo ID at the polls and say NO to early (and often) voting – we have a perfectly fine absentee ballot system in place; in fact I just got through talking to a friend who sent hers in today, 26 days before Election Day. So the system works as it is, there’s no need to introduce the possibility of mischief and fraud into it.
The problem is that the kids are getting paid to register, so they are making up names. Just a quick search found a mention of them getting in trouble in CO, but even the prosecutor admitted it wasn’t an attempt circumvent democracy but to make extra money by registering fake people. Now, if this isn’t a conspiracy and there are merely extra people on the rolls, what is the harm? NONE. Because those made up people aren’t going to vote.
Now tell me, why is ACORN being denounced as a terroristic organization, when at worst it employs a bunch of slacker kids looking to cut corners? If anything, it makes them no different then a McDonalds. But the Republican party knows their policies at this time have failed, so they have to resort to fear and demonizing.
And now Michael, there you go again forgetting your history again. We all know what “identification” meant just a couple of decades ago, and bc your party couldn’t play fair, they had to do away with IDs.
Now how about an article on how Republicans do not want a certifiable paper trail for the electronic machines that have been proven to be open to compromise and chicanery.
The whole debacle is that uniformed apathetic un-registered voters are getting registered who are not properly engaged in the political process- either politicals side- and what results is placebo effect of I’m making a change/ being involved based on an emotional response that is far from being knowledgable in the issues/philosophy.
Yes everyone should register and vote, but respect the system our founding principles of taking the time to be involved, vote via political philosophy, and genuinely caring…