MyDD :: Obama on ACORN [Update]

Obama on ACORN [Update]

by Shaun Appleby, Tue Oct 14, 2008 at 05:53:17 PM EST

The ACORN voter registration controversy has now occupied the mainstream media for a cycle or two, largely, it seems, because they are still looking for any opportunity to keep the 'horse race' narrative going in the face of a McCain campaign which seems to be incoherent and tanking fast. The McCain campaign is inaccurately depicting the submission of registrations of ineligible voters by ACORN as 'voter fraud' which is clearly incendiary and untrue:

ABC News noted that "Senator McCain today said that 'there has been voter fraud going on in the battleground states. ACORN is tampering with Americans' most precious right; there has to be a full and complete investigation.'

Jake Tapper, Andy Fies and Sunlen Miller - Obama on ACORN Controversy: "A Distraction... We Don't Need ACORN's Help" ABC 14 Oct 08

In a press availability outside his hotel, in Oregon, OH, not far from Toledo, Senator Obama delivers some timely, and reasonable, remarks on the subject:

"My understanding in terms of the voter fraud, because having run a voter registration drive, I know how problems arise, this is typically a situation where ACORN probably paid people to get registrations and these folks, not wanting to actually register people because that's actually hard work, just went into a phone book or made up names and submitted false registrations to get paid," Obama said. "So there's been fraud perpetrated probably on ACORN if they paid these individuals and they actually didn't do registrations."

"But this isn't a situation where there's actually people who are going to try to vote 'cause these are phony names," Obama said. "And, it's doubtful Tony Romo is gonna show up in Ohio to vote. So this is another one of these distractions that gets stirred up in the course of a campaign."

Jake Tapper, Andy Fies and Sunlen Miller - Obama on ACORN Controversy: "A Distraction... We Don't Need ACORN's Help" ABC 14 Oct 08

But the real issue, as we all know, is that this is being used as a smokescreen for claims of 'fraud' and false equivalences with traditional Republican voter suppression activities. Our candidate lays it on the line:

"But what I want to make sure of, is that this is not used as an excuse for the kind of voter suppression strategies and tactics that we've seen in the past. Let's just make sure everybody is voting, everybody's registered. Let's make sure that everybody's doing it in a lawful way."

Jake Tapper, Andy Fies and Sunlen Miller - Obama on ACORN Controversy: "A Distraction... We Don't Need ACORN's Help" ABC 14 Oct 08

The more insidious narrative surrounding ACORN, taking the 'fraud' argument at face value, is that it is yet another example of inappropriate relationships in Obama's past and that 'you need to disclose your full relationship with ACORN.' Pretty unattractive stuff in spite of McCain's relationship with ACORN as recently as 2006, when it suited him.

Senator Obama pushes back on this with low-key disclosure and unequivocal common sense:

"First of all, my relationship to ACORN is pretty straightforward. It's probably 13 years ago when I was still practicing law, I represented ACORN and my partner in that representation was the US Justice Department in having Illinois implement what was called the 'Motor Voter' law, to make sure that people could go to DMV's and drivers' license facilities to get registered. It wasn't being implemented. That was my relationship and is my relationship to ACORN.

"There is an ACORN organization in Chicago," Obama continued. "They have been active. As an elected official, I've had interactions with them. But they are not advising our campaign. We've got the best voter registration and turnout and volunteer operation in politics right now and we don't need ACORN's help."

Jake Tapper, Andy Fies and Sunlen Miller - Obama on ACORN Controversy: "A Distraction... We Don't Need ACORN's Help" ABC 14 Oct 08

I would probably have preferred a more full throated defence of ACORN as an asset to the political process but I can sympathise with Obama's position at this stage in the race. It is satisfying, at least, to see this position calmly asserted by the leader of the party rather than through surrogates as this narrative twists the issue of suffrage at a time when increased voter registration is changing the political landscape dramatically.

[Update] Some suggestion of ACORN's public position in their own defence:

Republicans continue to mount the pressure, with their presidential nominee at the helm. McCain himself has called for an investigation into ACORN's voter registration program, and Nevada authorities last week raided ACORN's Las Vegas office after the group submitted registrations for the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.

But ACORN officials defended their efforts, saying they're the ones pointing out problem registrations submitted by their canvassers, whom they pay by the hour, not by the registration. They also said they're required by law to turn in every form they collect, even if it's signed by Donald Duck.

ACORN spokesman Brian Kettenring said that although he knows the registration drives are far from perfect, "there is absolutely no doubt in our mind that the attention being paid by the right at this time is tremendously disproportionate to the problem and is distracting from a litany of other issues."

He and other voter advocates said the Republican attacks are all the more striking because allegations of widespread voter fraud have been repeatedly discredited. Most recently, in a report on the firings of U.S. attorneys accused of failing to pursue voter fraud cases, the Justice Department's inspector general found that such cases were generally dropped for lack of evidence.

Pam Fessler - Republicans, ACORN Spar Over Voter Registration NPR 14 Oct 08

And some disconcerting observations on the long-term motive of Republicans in making this attack:

Rick Hasen, an election law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said he thinks Republicans are leveling the criticisms in case they lose.

"I think this is just part of a kind of a long-term Republican strategy to play up allegations of voter fraud," Hasen said. "As a kind of insurance policy in case there's a very close election."

He said there is little evidence that voter registration fraud translates into fraud at the polls, even though that may be beside the point.

"The allegations alone certainly wouldn't be a basis for overturning an election, but I think they prepare the public for an aggressive kind of litigation strategy," he said.

Pam Fessler - Republicans, ACORN Spar Over Voter Registration NPR 14 Oct 08

It appears we are going to have to be well-informed and vigilant in pushing back on this narrative, not just in the next three weeks of the election but well beyond.

Tags: barack obama, election 2008, democratic party, ACORN (all tags)

Permalink :: 16 Comments :: Post a Comment

Re: Obama on ACORN (none / 0)

Good diary, though putting actual facts about ACORN out there certainly won't stop the RW mouthpieces from lying about it.
In one of those videos of the RWers attending the rallies some guy was getting ACORN all mixed up with Fannie and Freddie and sub prime mortgages.
What a doofus- just the kind of people Republicans want to vote.

"Who are you for? That is the wrong question. It should be who is for you?" HRC

by skohayes on Tue Oct 14, 2008 at 06:08:59 PM EST

Re: Obama on ACORN (2.00 / 0)

The Republican attacks are becoming truly 'scandalous' themselves:

Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz called ACORN a "quasi-criminal group" last week during one of a series of news conferences, charging that the group was committing fraud during its voter-registration drives. "We don't do that lightly," RNC chief counsel Sean Cairncross said.

All this leaves leaders of ACORN -- formally known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- agape.

"It's pretty shocking that anyone would say such a thing," Bertha Lewis, interim chief organizer for National ACORN, said of Diaz's assertion. "It's a lie, it's irresponsible, and I'm really disappointed that they would say such a thing. What's the meaning of 'quasi-criminal' anyway?"

Steven A Holmes and Mary Pat Flaherty - GOP Officials Assail Community Group Washington Post 14 Oct 08

'Quasi-criminal?' The GOP is declaring war on community organisers, any time, any place and anywhere. Maybe they are projecting their angst over the thumping they expect, and richly deserve. Whatever the outcome we can't let them demonise the rights of the people to vote, however problematic the process

by Shaun Appleby on Tue Oct 14, 2008 at 09:29:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

F-CNN and MSNBC (none / 0)

Man, those shills have been pumping ACORN for days now...I couldn't get away from it this weekend?

Don't they learn, it's always local Republicans bringing this up, and RIGHT CLOSE to election time? Coincidence? Yeah, right.

Where are these media clowns about the DECADES LONG purging activities the Republicans have been doing?

You turkeys...They purged, what, about 20,000 votes in Florida in 2000?

You want a story, CNN? Try history if Al Gore would have been President: No Iraq War, No Katrina response disaster, No Economic Melt Down....

Just jobs, prosperity, and status in the world community?

Still not as juicy as ACORN, is it?

On Nov 4th, Barack Obama officially ends the Southern Strategy....

by WashStateBlue on Tue Oct 14, 2008 at 06:14:24 PM EST

Re: F-CNN and MSNBC (2.00 / 1)

Typically, Josh Marshall parses the story down to it's basics:

I've always had questions about whether this is a good way to do voter registration. And Democratic campaigns usually keep their distance. But here's the key. This is fraud against ACORN. They end up paying people for registering more people then they actually signed up. If you register me three times to vote, the registrar will see two new registrations of an already registered person and the ones won't count. If I successfully register Mickey Mouse to vote, on election day, Mickey Mouse will still be a cartoon character who cannot go to the local voting station and vote. Logically speaking there's very little way a few phony names on the voting rolls could be used to commit actual vote fraud. And much more importantly, numerous studies and investigations have shown no evidence of anything more than a handful of isolated cases of actual instances of vote fraud.

Josh Marshall - The Gist of the ACORN Story TPM 10 Oct 08

But what the media is doing with this is unconscionable, and downright ignorant, and we need to pushback heavily:

...there is zero evidence of any voter fraud or anything that would make voter fraud more likely. The level of lying, bad faith or at best ignorance of the people making these claims is really beyond imagining. This isn't vote fraud. There's no evidence of vote fraud. Nothing. This is an effort of a losing political party to a) lay the groundwork for challenging their defeat at the polls b) lay the groundwork to pass laws to make it harder for poor people and minorities to vote.

Josh Marshall - Disgrace TPM 14 Oct 08

That the mainstream media uses the toxic Republican phrase 'vote fraud' when discussing this issue is damaging Obama, misinforming the public and indefensible 'jingo journalism.'

by Shaun Appleby on Tue Oct 14, 2008 at 08:41:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

This is Lou Dobbs stuff. (2.00 / 1)

It feeds his overweening sense of permanent outrage. Or PermaRage(tm).

The wingnuts I know in real life that I have talked to lately are all in a dither about this, but it's competing for the attention of their spare brain cells with Muslim smears, Arab smears, Ayers, Wright, terrorists taking over the country, etc. In a way, this is a step up for them.

I'm more concerned with the Fannie Mae Stab-in-the-Back narrative that they are developing. That could have real legs, even though it's false. I'm sure we are going to win the election, but I don't want to spend the next ten years having to debunk the idea that the economic meltdown is all Barney Frank and Chris Dodd's fault for coddling Fannie Mae. That's their excuse, and if past is prologue, they are going to beat that drum for years. I want this albatross to hang around Bush's neck for the rest of eternity.

by Dumbo on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 06:19:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama on ACORN (2.00 / 1)

I think ACORN needs to re-evaluate its voter registration program. I do not worry that this is being linked to Obama because like everything else the link here is tenuous. Obama's voter registration is done by volunteers and the result has been sterling.

However the problem with ACORN is that this scandal has compromised its overall message. One of the problems is that ACORN pays people to get registration. Now that by itself I am against, but then again when you ask someone to devote many hours per week for registration it is only right that the person gets paid. So ACORN has to recruit more reliable people for their work. From what I see these people who committed the fraudulent registrations did so because they wanted to show some work for the money they were being paid. So what were they doing in the time when they should have been registering votes is anyone's guess, but ACORN should be more careful in selecting people to take part in their registration drives if they do no want this to happen again.

by tarheel74 on Tue Oct 14, 2008 at 06:29:35 PM EST

Re: Obama on ACORN (2.00 / 1)

Perhaps so, and no doubt there is some soul-searching going on at ACORN over this, but I think that may not be the real issue. Firstly, there is nothing inherently undemocratic about paying canvassers to register voters, it is a way that non-volunteer contributors can support such an activity. But it seems to me the real issue here is to not permit the Republicans to create a narrative where ineligible voter registrations are seen as scandalous. Anyone who has done that kind of data collection will admit the problem of inaccurate information getting into the system, by accident or design, and if we let the Republicans frame this as malicious we have lost the high ground.

I was interested to note in the diary citation that ACORN is obliged to submit every form they collect, and typically warns the relevant authorities of suspect submissions. I would be interested to hear more, specifically, about that aspect of this controversy as it seems to go a long way to explaining what otherwise seems like incompetence on ACORN's part.

There are always going to be dud registration forms, if we let the Republicans frame this issue as anything less than 100% accuracy being perceived as 'fraud' we have lost the most important battle and will regret it for years to come.

by Shaun Appleby on Tue Oct 14, 2008 at 08:20:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama on ACORN (2.00 / 1)

Just a clarification of the obligation issue, from a National Press Club press conference with Kevin Whelan, an ACORN voter-registration drive coordinator:

And then by state law or good legal advice we're required to turn all of those cards, including the problematic cards in to boards of elections on a regular basis, week by week in states across the country.

And because the cards our quality control identified as problematic and such we put a note on top of them that said these are the problematic cards. Anytime, and it's a relative handful ot workers out of 13,000 but there are inevitably a few who decided they would try to pad their hours by duplicating a card or filling out another or by making up a name. If we discover this, through our calls or looking at the cards, we not only turn that information over but we turn the information that we had about that former employee because they've been fired by that point to election officials and ask for their help in prosecuting that person.

It's now many of those problematic card packages that have a note on top of them that says 'These are the problematic cards as opposed to this larger stack which is the good one that we're now hearing about and hearing in distorted , and many partisan attacks. The upshot of the attacks is to try to cast aspersions on or inhibit the remarkable turnout and the remarkable interest on the part of hundreds of thousands of Americans who are looking to vote for the first time this year. And ACORN is not going to let that happen.

Frank James - ACORN, villain or victim? Chicago Tribune 14 Oct 08

Incidentally, the Tribune piece cited above is the first I've seen with a genuinely even-handed approach and is hopefully a sign of better things to come. It is well worth a read.

by Shaun Appleby on Tue Oct 14, 2008 at 09:11:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama on ACORN (2.00 / 1)

look the issues here are two-fold:

1) how does ACORN get some accountability into their system? Now the issue here has been overblown by the media as some sort of malfeasance to cause vote fraud. That however is far from the truth. In reality as Obama said some very callous people decided to swindle both the state and ACORN. So the problem again is ACORN has to be more careful whom they select to do their registration. Which in turn leads to the second point:

2) Lack of oversight on the part of ACORN has created a suitable red herring to perpetrate voter caging and challenge all newly registered voters. ACORN's callousness gives the GOP a very suitable ruse and they have used it to good effect. Remember the entire US attorney scandal happened because the attorneys involved refused to start unnecessary litigation into allegations of voter fraud when there were none. However this ACORN fiasco will give them a smokescreen to do what they want. Already Josh Marshall and TPM is reporting that the Ohio GOP has won a substantial federal court ruling that in essence negates nearly 600,000 newly registered voters. That is a substantial bloc of Democratic voters who had registered before the primary and the way it sounds from the report if the Ohio AG's office is not able to set up a system by which newly registered voters can be checked against the DMV, SSA and then reported to all 88 county boards within the next 3 days these people wil lose their right to vote. The GOP again successfully used the smokescreen of ACORN to justify its acts. In the end ACORN's callousness is causing more harm than good for the time being.

by tarheel74 on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 12:51:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama on ACORN (2.00 / 1)

I don't think we disagree about very much, given that the Nevada ACORN inaccuracies apparently originated from a program involving inmates, of all things. But I've tried to show that ACORN 'callousness' is probably more caused by the operating constraints of the law and legal advice.

As for the recent decision of U.S. District Court in Columbus and the 600,000 registrations, I assumed that the outcome merely meant that the Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must 'provide counties with the names of new voters whose records did not match:'

Smith, appointed by President Reagan, said the Help America Vote Act requires states not only to verify the addresses and other identifying information provided by newly registered voters with the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the federal Social Security Administration, but also to provide counties with the names of new voters whose records did not match.

Brunner's office had been doing the computerized verification, but the GOP argued that Brunner had not made the names available to county elections boards. The judge gave her a week to comply.

The judge said he lacked the authority to order the counties to clean up the voter rolls once they had the list, but he noted that Ohio law permits challenges to absentee ballots.

Darrel Rowland and Mark Niquette - Brunner loses lawsuit to GOP Columbus Dispatch 14 Oct 08

Am I missing something here? Doesn't this merely give counties the chance to vet registrations in their own areas? I realise we don't trust some of the shenanigans already under way at local levels but this doesn't sound to me like we're losing 600k voters.

by Shaun Appleby on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 01:43:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama on ACORN (none / 0)

sorry for the late reply but here is my concern. Yes this ruling allows counties to vet registration but it does two more things:

1) it allows people to challenge voters depending on any discrepancy between their license/ID address and their address on registration. Who does it affect? It affects a lot of people esp. students who generally use their permanent home address on their license but register at their current address. It also affects migrants and non-homeowners. I do not own a home because I work as a post-doc and am always on the move. When I was a grad student my address was in one county but later when I moved last year I did not change the address on my license to reflect my current address which is in a different county (only a few miles apart) and also the address of my registration. Now because I know the rules I will take a utility bill with me when I vote but many like me have no idea and are liable to get challenged based on this law or worse get disqualified as a voter without their knowledge. This has expanded to the SSA. Given that my SS card was isued in Michigan and I now live in North Carolina, god only knows what I have to face and I am just one of many millions.

2) This ruling also does something unprecedented, it finally gives credence, however false and tenuous it might be, to the GOP claim of voter fraud.

Thus once more I reiterate ACORN's callousness and lack of judgment in selecting people to do their voter registration has ended up doing more harm than good.

p.s. my fiancee tells me that she met some shady people, definitely not the most responsible type by their looks, who were talking about how they were getting paid by the Obama campaign to register voters in Durham. Again I do not know how widespread this is or if there has been any reports of impropriety but the campaign should do a better job of screening its voter registration people if this indeed happens to be the case. We really do not want any more red herring or faux controversies.

by tarheel74 on Thu Oct 16, 2008 at 12:05:06 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama on ACORN [Update] (2.00 / 1)

Let's face it, the republicans are in their last throes, and are desperate for anything that can keep them afloat. This will not do it.

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. -- David Friedman

by pollbuster on Tue Oct 14, 2008 at 09:41:39 PM EST

Re: Obama on ACORN [Update] (2.00 / 1)

And let's not forget, the firing of the Attornies General (7 I believe) was because they refused to make stuff up about "voter fraud." The more people who are registered and vote, the less chance the repubs. have to win. They count on low citizen engagement. Remember only 30% of those eligible to register really are registered.

by calwoman on Tue Oct 14, 2008 at 10:55:54 PM EST

Re: Obama on ACORN [Update] (2.00 / 2)

Obama is so fly...

by obama4presidente on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 12:24:55 AM EST

Re: Obama on ACORN [Update] (none / 0)

While this issue may involve voter registration fraud, it's not voter fraud. Some unscrupulous ACORN workers may have submitted registration forms for Donald Duck, but I would be very surprised if Donald Duck actually showed up on election day to vote! There have also been reports that some ACORN workers simply copied information from local telephone books. However, I don't know of any telephone books that include dates of birth or identification information such as a SSN or driver's license (required by most states). Those registrations should be very easy to spot, and easily rejected. In my state, should I fail to provide those key pieces of information, my registration would be rejected automatically, without any notification to me. So, where's the potential for voter fraud?

by zenful6219 on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 07:48:58 AM EST

Agreed (none / 0)

This is a phony issue. But ACORN does have to amend it's ways. As a person who volunteered and worked for many liberal organizations, the problem is that liberal organizations tend to institute very tough quotas on the number of voters you register or money you raise (if a fundraiser), as a condition for further employment. The tough quota policies tend to encourage cheating by workers who want to keep their jobs. Conservative organizations don't have this problem because they tend to be funded by billionaires.

Dizzy Zzyzzy

by Zzyzzy on Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 01:50:54 PM EST

You are not logged in.

In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.

If not, you can make an account right here. It's quick and free.