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AVOIDING THE ISSUE.
CNN is unable or unwilling to make the critical distinction between registration fraud and voter fraud. As I've said before, the former is really easy to do, even by accident, and the latter is extremely difficult and rarely occurs. The sheer volume of ACORN registration forms found in Indiana suggests the forms were deliberately filled out wrong, but they do not in any sense prove that there is a widespread liberal conspiracy to steal the election. More likely, ACORN workers were stealing time and trying to get paid without actually doing their jobs. Given how easily the forms were discovered, it would have to be the most inept scheme in the history of the United States.
Last night on Anderson Cooper's show, CNN reporter Drew Griffin concluded the following (via Lexis):
GRIFFIN: It absolutely is a crime. That was a fraud, somebody who filled out those forms. And I looked at them, Anderson. They're obviously a fraud.But the election workers say we have to turn this over to the actual elected board of elections. The board of elections has to then bring in the county attorney to see if an investigation, a criminal investigation, should begin. So all of that will be, you know, weeks, maybe even months down the road, and of course, that's going to be after the election.
Griffin's conclusion leaves open the possibility that there are thousands of fraudulent registration forms that will lead to people voting illegally and thus stealing the election. No where in his report does he acknowledge that voter fraud is very difficult to pull off and thus very rare, he is simply content to frighten people into believing that the fraudulent voter forms could lead to the election being stolen.
By contrast,The New York Times reported yesterday that thousands of voters have been illegally purged from the rolls in several swing states. Cooper gave this non-hypothetical problem about ten seconds of airtime before informing his viewers that they would "look into it in the days ahead."
Here we have one problem that we know is real, is actually happening, and may deny hundreds of thousands of Americans their vote on Election Day. But that's not nearly as sexy or exciting as an election stealing conspiracy that doesn't actually exist. We have a real problem, and a hypothetical one. CNN, like many in the mainstream media, decided the hypothetical problem was more important.
They're "keeping them honest," all right. Everyone but those who might actually affect your right to vote.
--A. Serwer
COMMENTS (13)
One thing that never gets reported in the anti-ACORN frenzy is that ACORN, like all people registering voters, must by law turn in all forms that they collect. Otherwise, Democrats/Republicans would throw out forms from voters they don't want in order to disqualify them. They are absolutely not allowed to take out the duplicates or Donald Duck/Hans Solo forms that are put in by either hourly contractors padding their numbers or by wisea## people saying, "Sure, I'll sign your form" and then putting a phony name down.
From what I understand, ACORN attempts to flag suspicious forms so Election Boards can review them but they would be liable if they remove them from their submissions.
If someone attempts to vote under a false name, then you have election fraud but this "bad forms" thing is a phony scandal.
Posted by: The Other Ed | October 10, 2008 12:39 PM
This smells an awful lot like a rat-fucking. I'll wager that vast majority of improperly filled out forms were deliberately done so by Rovian Republican operatives.
Posted by: ed | October 10, 2008 1:10 PM
It's not surprising that the establishment media swallows camels but strains at gnats !
Posted by: H-Bob | October 10, 2008 1:25 PM
Where was this level of concern when Rick Santorum's people collected a whole bunch of fake names to get Green Party senate candidate Carl Romanelli on the PA ballot 2 years ago?
Posted by: cha cha cha | October 10, 2008 1:54 PM
I saw this today. It absolutely smelled like a ratfucking. They pointed out that Indiana election officials are going to put the ones they think are legit "off to the side" to "worry about later".
By later, I hope they don't mean November 5th...
p.s. I'll also say that Indiana has a (Supreme Court approved) voter ID law. If the State of Indiana is letting Donald Duck, Tony Romo, and Ronald McDonald get IDs to vote in the election, well, that is another problem, a more serious one I'd say.
Posted by: Joshua | October 10, 2008 1:57 PM
It's just pathetic that we even need volunteer voter registration efforts in the first place, rather than having a robust effort by the government. Christ, we spend far more trying to get people to buy goddamn lotto tickets. In some ways, we are a seriously, seriously fucked up society for one that claims to be a democracy.
Posted by: Glenn | October 10, 2008 2:01 PM
As my dear old Ma said so many times: Ratfucking is as ratfucking does.
Posted by: ed | October 10, 2008 2:04 PM
If we had same day voting/registration like Wisconsin this wouldn't be a problem. This really is a cover for the republicans getting rid of lots of voters. The amusing thing about voter ID laws is that they are getting rid of older voters who are likely to vote Republican
Posted by: Eric U. | October 10, 2008 2:07 PM
More likely, ACORN workers were stealing time and trying to get paid without actually doing their jobs.
BINGO! I worked for ACORN in 2006 registering voters. There was a LOT of emphasis placed on making sure the people we signed up were for real.
Posted by: Anonymous | October 11, 2008 3:33 AM
Oops! I am the above "anonynous"
Posted by: Steve J. | October 11, 2008 3:35 AM
One thing I've learned from years in politics is that the GOP will always accuse the other side of whatever it is they're up to, to defuse any criticism. Look for 2000 to play out over again, with those angry rally crowds ready to re-eneact the Broward Brooks Brothers riot a thousand fold.
This is going to be a very ugly November.
Posted by: Mark Folse | October 11, 2008 1:20 PM
I was told by my friend in Washington DC that they did not ask him to produce his voter registration slip nor his picture ID when he went to vote this morning! All they asked was his name. This means that those 10,000 fake names registered by Acorn COULD actually gain a vote simply by having the same group of people get in line to vote, each time citing a different fake name. So how is this not voter fraud!!??k
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