The GOP’s Fraudulent Claims about Vote Fraud
By Kathryn Kolbert Tuesday Oct 14, 2008 3:15pmAt a DC press conference this morning, the GOP trotted out two elder statesmen to do its dirty work – former senators John Danforth and Warren Rudman. Echoing accusations made by McCain and the RNC against the community organizing group ACORN, they falsely warned that voter fraud could throw the election into chaos.
With a straight face Danforth said that 2008 could be like 2000 if we don’t act now. But I’m sorry, wasn’t 2000 when his party strong-armed the recount and disenfranchised thousands of Floridians? But never mind that.
In fact, today’s press conference was just the latest effort by the GOP to justify voter suppression under the guise of so-called election integrity. As in the past, Republicans have latched onto a few colorful but insignificant examples – e.g. a man who was registered to vote 73 times and a 7-year-old child who was registered – to advocate for draconian enforcement measures that disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters, typically minority and low-income voters.
But there are already safeguards in place that prevent people who submit fraudulent voter registrations from actually voting. In fact, there is no evidence of significant voter fraud of any variety anywhere in the nation. At the urging of the GOP, the Justice Department sought evidence of fraud but came up empty-handed.
However, there is evidence for significant vote suppression and disenfranchisement. As the New York Times reported last week: “Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law.” This is what Danforth and Rudman would have talked about today if they really cared about election integrity.
They also would have talked about the various barriers to voting that members of their party have erected, like rejecting voter registration forms not printed on 80-pound bond paper or requiring names on voter registration forms to exactly match records in existing databases (e.g. Mike R. Neuman would be rejected if listed elsewhere as Michael R. Neuman). Or how about the strict voter ID laws put in place by Republicans? They seem reasonable enough, until you consider that millions of voting-age Americans (perhaps as high as 10%) do not have driver’s licenses.
The logic behind the GOP’s efforts is as simple as it is undemocratic: the fewer people who vote, the better off Republicans candidates will be. When you hear Republicans talk about vote fraud, here’s what they really mean:
Kathryn Kolbert is President of People For the American Way.
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Republican scumbags once again accuse others of committing the very crimes the GOP themselves actively engage in.
It's so Standard Operating Procedure it's not even funny.
DOJ Caging Listers.
They accuse us of what they are guilty of- I have to laugh when right wingers call the left fascists- as fascism is a right wing ideology-
No doubt they engaged in voter fraud in 2000 and 2004, and now claim we are doing what they clearly did.
I hate right wing scum- But I fear that somehow,they will try to steal this election, and may succeed...
There will be challenges and delays in low income districts in swing states. There will be people not permitted to vote through these manipulations. There will be an attempt to steal the election again like in Florida in 2000. There will be state officials and state judges that will prevent Democratic votes from counting. The only question is will we just stand aside and look? Or will we do something about this?
They found the voting fraud here! OMG! This explains everything!
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y131/magnari...
A Republican from Texas brought ACORN into existence and it was used by John McCain for photo ops as well.
To suggest that this level of voter fraud has exclusivity to the democrats is astounding; clearly, it's a problem and a black eye for both sides if anything.
But to spin this drivel as some of these GOPhers are doing is absurd. They're making jackasses of themselves and insulting the intelligence of the american people.
No one is buying this ACORN bullshit - Like Obama said about it, it's wrong but those fictitious people aren't going to show up to vote.
Besides, a particular element of ACORN law is that "every and all" (bogus and real) applications for voter registration MUST BE PROCESSED.
This is a non issue when William Timmons and McCain's connections to Saddam Hussein have surafced; this is a non issue smoke screen while the Palin's anti-government AIP extremist connections have been aired.
Typical political smokescreen and totally meaningless to the Obama campaign.
If anything, it makes all Republicans look like a gang of criminal thugs.
They ARE criminal thugs. Or the enabelers. or the sympathizers. remember-'If'n yew aint fer us yer against us'
2006 McCain was the Keynote ACORN rally speaker in Miami.
Unfortunately, some people are buying the ACORN bullshit, but fortunately it's almost exclusively the zombie drones that are already voting for them.
"Zombie drones" may sound a little harsh, until you've watched the various YouTube videos interviewing the McCain supporters. They say stuff like, "ACORN got us into this financial mess, by forcing the banks to make bad loans to poor people!". They say it without the least doubt in their minds.
This is read meat thrown in at the last minute. The GOP is getting desparate.
When you compare the heinous disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of voters illegally by the GOP over the past couple of weeks to ACORN which has allegations of illegal solicitation on both sides of the aisle, the weight certainly goes to the totally illegal purging of voters in 6 states. This is criminal and will be brought forward through intense investigation. The GOP has egg on it's face now and must go through their voter files and reinstate these voters.
Sure, they want to distract us but who cares about ACORN anyway? Which one of these dead people are going to show up and vote? None of them. So essentially, there could be no illegal thing occuring relative to the voting itself - these are bogus registrations with bogus names.
Last time I checked, you had to show ID at your polling precinct so where's the real problem here.
A serious problem is when a voter who has the constitutional right to vote has been purged illegally from the rolls. This is totally illegal.
You are so right. As if Diebold, and Priemere Election Solutions, their new criminal alias, haven't stolen more votes than ACORN could possibly manufacture even in Danforth's wettest wet dreams.
And they will continue to do so.
Their desparation is comforting
But let's not forget what IS RELEVANT in today's news! A judge has just ruled the illegal "voter purge" by the GOP in 6 swing states as totally ILLEGAL.
This will be coming out with force tomorrow and maybe McCain will be asked to address his feelings or involvement with that GOP "faux pas"????
[Deleted. Completely off topic. That has nothing to do with vote fraud. Please take it to an Open Thread. Thank you. Site Monitor]
Wouldn't it be fitting and proper if the Democrats did something similar citing all the of the improper voter suppression cases just not tell anyone that its the GOP behind them. At least not until the end.
As has been pointed out elsewhere, ACORN is not being accused of voter fraud, only voter registration fraud, which is far less serious a crime. I would be guilty of voter registration fraud if I send in a registration card under the name "Mickey Mouse", that doesn't mean that I'm going to swing the election, or effect it at all.
Really? The Warren Rudman who founded the Concord Coalition with Paul Tsongas? The Warren Rudman who left the Senate and decided not to run for office again because politics was getting so filthy and ineffective? What a disappointment. I believe the whirring I hear is Paul.
Well, Warren is old, perhaps he's caught McCain disease.
This is not about "vote" fraud. It's about "registration" fraud - a minor issue. The Rightwing has to frame it as "vote" fraud so they have an excuse to say the election was stolen. It's that simple. If the election is close they will challenge it. Strongly.
Oh, and by the way, John Danforth is a dick.
last time, it was because they werent paying minimum wage
acorn does need to tighten up its accounting and recruitment....christ, registering mickey mouse???
but until mr mouse shows up to vote...this is straight out stupidity...thats it
the worst thing is now the repugs are trying to blame acorn for the crash...cuz we all know, deregulation and "free" trade had nothing to do with it...
yes...it could never be that reagan's vodoo economics was flawed from the outset...that is impossible
so it had to be acorn...and one lawsuit against citibank (who amazingly is still solvent)
ACORN is garnering about as much attention as Paris Hilton's newest hair-do.
Dead men have been registering to vote since this country began. Both parties are equally guilty of it - this we know. Tomorrow we'll discover the Republican side of ACORN.
Besides, it was a Republican from Texas who drew up the bill in the first place. John McCain used it as a photo op while supporting it tremendously.
From TPM:
ACORN registers lots of lower income and/or minority voters. They operate all across the country and do a lot of things beside voter registration. What's key to understand is their method. By and large they do not rely on volunteers to register voters. They hire people -- often people with low incomes or even the unemployed. This has the dual effect of not only registering people but also providing some work and income for people who are out of work. But because a lot of these people are doing it for the money, inevitably, a few of them cut corners or even cheat. So someone will end up filling out cards for nonexistent names and some of those slip through ACORN's own efforts to catch errors. (It's important to note that in many of the recent ACORN cases that have gotten the most attention it's ACORN itself that has turned the people in who did the fake registrations.) These reports start buzzing through the right-wing media every two years and every time the anecdotal reports of 'thousands' of fraudulent registrations turns out, on closer inspection, to be either totally bogus themselves or wildly exaggerated. So thousands of phony registrations ends up being, like, twelve.
ho hum...this race is over when the GOP has to begin taking desperate measures. Like purging people illegally from their voting rosters in 6 states. Like trying to pin something they've done themselves on the other party...ho hum - I can't wait for this Republiscumbagism to stop.
The people are sick and tired of putrid, necrotic Republican tactics.
TIME TO VOTE ALL REPUBLICANS OUT OF OFFICE - PURGE THEM ALL FROM THEIR SEATS IN CONGRESS. THEY ALL ARE CORRUPT AND STINK TO HIGH HEAVEN.
Let the next generation take over! Take the wisdom from the fifties born guys and have the sixties and seventies born do their craft! After all they are our children. They are smart and modern.
These Republicans will stop at nothing to retain their grasp on power. If the elections are allowed to take place, Diebold will deliver the vote to the Republicans.
It is time to ask ourselves," What will I do when the Republicans officially suspend our vestige of democracy?"
you can always lie and cheat to steal an election.
I am sure that there is some fraud by people working for ACORN …
But I am sure using the same anecdotal evidence
The republicans in congress are all closet gays
(not that there’s anything wrong with that (; )
Perhaps that's why Bush and the Republicans have had such a hard time turning Iraq into a democratic republic. It's because the Iraqis can see what one-half of the American people can't...Bush and the Republican party don't believe in it themselves.
What the GOP is doing is setting the scene for allegations of a stolen election if Obama and the Democrats win. They will use that to convince the public that most people still support the GOP (which they clearly don't) and that absent some voter fraud, their candidate(s) would have won.
In the mind of Joe Six Pack American, voter fraud and election fraud is the same thing. When we draw attention to election fraud, on a massive scale involving tens of thousands of votes that can swing and has swung elections, the Republicans come back with a few voter fraud cases that have never made a difference in any election. Joe Six Pack thinks both sides are equal and moves on to the next distraction.
so, surely the DEMOCRATIC press conference is plannned and scheduled for tomorrow with DEMOCRATIC elder statespersons who will TELL THE TRUTH...
eh?
You wish. Another troll! Another 50 bucks for Obama!
5 million votes behind. They've been busy purging the voter rolls for the last 4 years.
Anonymous mentioned that dead men have been registered to vote since the country began. Didn't Ashcroft lose an election to a dead man?
Anyway, here's a short clip of Greg Palast talking about registration caging.
http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=greg+pal...
Danforth is (was) a real conservative a decent guy against religious extremism for separation of church-state against prayer in school apparently the WH Thugs-Fascists gave him an ultimatum this isn't the John Danforth I know.
the only thing going for these guys in claiming voter fraud and then alluding to the same thing happening in 2000 when their party committed the worst voting atrocities is the ignorance of their target audience. They are so ignorant (how ignorant are they) that they would stand up in front of a john mcCain rally and proclaim that Obama "is an Arab." That's how ignorant they are so with this kind of misinformation, they stand a chance to make their case.
of Hitler and while the whole country was devastated He ordered in divisions that didn't exist. Total pathetic panic mode. Hour by hour this election is becoming 'sound and fury'.
those kids in Minnesota get charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism but Palin and McCains dogs at these rallies get a free pass yelling kill him?
Somethings seriously wrong here people.
When is someone going to bring up Caging List DOJ Monica (I Took a Oath to Bush) Goodling?
http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/05/monica...
Plus the video of Governor Palin telling these right wing extremist/domestic terrorists (AIP - Alaska Secession Party) to "keep up the good work".
This piece also explored the AIP's "plot to infiltrate" the US Government beginning with Sarah Palin. Could it be that this is all part of a right wing conspiracy to destroy this country?
It's beginning to look that way. "infiltrate" our government?? As in "infiltrate and take over"?
I don't know about you but this gives me the willies.
Check it out:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/14/...
Infiltrate all levels of government, even running for political office in a different party to promote Alaskan secession.
This woman is a shill for this right wing terrorist group. We need to ship her back to Alaska.
come to find out during this CNN piece that this radical group is even to the far, far right of the Republican right....how far right is that?
It's beginning to look like Hitler's Reichstag to me.
[Deleted. Off topic- but I see you did post it on the appropriate thread. Thank you. Site Monitor]
But gave up her membership to run as a Republican to "infiltrate".
along with her card-carrying husband, First Dud, who was a bona fide member of this group through 2002, Sarah, the secessionist, attended their annual meeting with him in 2006.
What does this tell us about Lying Sarah? That she's a pathological liar(we've seen this over the past 2 days about her troopergate verdict); she's a serial abuser of power (illegal email accounts, missing emails, copying her husband in on official state business, having her home built as a payoff for a sports complex, and the list grows every day). Now we find that as she tries to tie Obama to Ayers who did his dirty work when Obama was 8, this woman is guilty of her own "terrorist dirty work" as recently as this year - even a few months ago in her continued support of this right wing anti-government group of extremists.
This woman is downright dangerous. Todd Palin in the White House is equally frightening.
What's their plan: INFILTRATE AND CONQUER????
It's a right wing CONspiracy to wipe out anything that has to do with the 60's and all it represented and represents to this day.
It's time to begin a petition process to our representatives to look into these anti-american ties which the Palin's have right now to this extremist group or no one will be safe.
This woman makes week old moose feces smell good; in fact, next to her any age fecal matter smells better than she does at this point.
This woman is dangerous to the stability and national security of this country.
That's why the GOP is outing her and saying that McCain's selection of her violates our national security.
Even his cronies are saying it. Now that's saying something.
many times on C&L that the Thugs will not go quietly. And was critisized for My 'negativity'. Well, I am still not convinced -and never will be until Obama is sworn in- that the 'unthinkable' won't happen. Keep your powder dry. Watch and Learn.
Obama opens up a 14 pt lead in CBS national poll. Looks like all the McCain dirty work and Palin's moose manure is catching up with them and taking them under like quicksand.
Yep, doggone it. Soon Caribou Barbee will be back in the secessionist country of Alaska facing impeachment you betcha! Wink, wink.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/14/opi...
The man who registered to vote 72 times is a 19 year old kid. Each time he registered to vote; he used the same address. The reason he did it: he was trying to pick up the hot chicks that work for ACORN.
Now you tell me: could this be handled by just telling the kid to stop filling out the forms?
The GOP is going after this 19 year old kid over some really dumb shit. The sad part is; he will probably be proscecuted to generate headlines in the press.
have said here,the cure to The Thugs pondscum is a massive victory. Vote. Please vote.
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/...
See my comment above titled ACORN self-reports on registration fraud.
Have I mentioned how great it is to have Kathryn posting here at Crooks and Liars? The GOP voter suppression needs to be exposed and purged from our election systems.
That's all they have left. It is sad when the GOP world is turning our political system into Jim Crow KKK third world lynch mobs. So baron of ideas. So lost of identity that they resort to the tactics of Hate and Fear.
The propaganda shows, now want you to believe that there maybe a chance that The Bradley affect is why Obama is leading in the Polls and NOT, the fact that people are tired of the GOP raping our treasury.
The Good Old Boy's network trying to blame all the peoples problems and fears on the skin color of another man who, for the last two years has been under more scrutiny then any other ploitician since.... The Clinton's eight year cavity search.
I wonder if the Media in 60's n 70's or 80's would condone such neglegent civil mis-conduct.
Compared to the blank stairs of the media today. As if they don't know their history.
PLEASE, EVERYONE VOTE! IT'S TIME TO CLEAN HOUSE! YES WE CAN!
AND DON'T LISTEN TO THEM!!!!
Listened briefly to rightwing hate radio. The ACORN issue is really resonating with the righties. It is going to require an equally concerted effort from the left to get this back to a reality-based conversation. People simply don't understand the mechanics of voting and believe that someone who is registered 73 times will be allowed to cast 73 votes and that same day registration and early voting are sinister plots to facilitate ACORNS plans. NO one mentions the voter roll purges, naturally.
This claim of registration fraud is completely irrelevant to the election process, but republicans will try to make the false equivalency to justify their push to keep minorities from voting.
Think about it, who gives a flying rat's ass if someone got 'spiderman', 'superman', etc. or if a 7 year old got registered 73 times. As long as Superman doesn't show up to vote in my district (because he should only vote in Metropolis of course!), only then would that affect the election at all.
If that seven year old shows up to vote 73 times and someone doesn't call him on it, then there's something seriously wrong with the system anyway.
This whole mess of voter registration "fraud" really will affect nothing!
If the Dems wanted to cheat and steal elections they'd go to the Republicans for advice.
After this election, the dems should pass laws purging republicans from the voter rolls. Just say they are too stupid and metally imbalanced to vote. After all, what kind of an imbecile would keep on voting for their own economic destruction if they were not sick in the head?
That makes a lot more sense than anything the republicans ever come up with!
You think anyone is gonna be dumb enough to believe it if they call it for MC Stupid ? Its well past mobs with torches and pitchforks time already. Obama needs to keep pouring it on the old man. Get the spread up to 20 points or more. The Repukes deserve the "in your face" ass kicking they are heading for anyways. Might shut them up for a few decades or so. We can only hope. Karma is a lovely thing.
I have an idea, Mr. Rudman and Mr. Danforth! Please forgive me if I forsake the traditional form of address 'Honorable'.
If we're so concerned about fraudulent voting... let's try to make the actual voting system more bulletproof. Let's have paper trails and verifiable ways of assuring a citizen can only vote once.
Let's get rid of all the electronic voting machines that can not only be hacked from the outside, but can easily be manipulated from within the system. Replace them with good old-fashioned hand counts.
Then you wouldn't have to worry your little heads about ACORN, and they could still have drives to get out the vote.
You do want people to get out the vote, right? You do believe in the sacred duty of the citizen to vote, right? You do agree that the more who participate in this democratic process, the better, right?
You are Americans, right?
ACORN is mostly staffed with idealistic young people, poor people and Black women. I briefly worked for them when I first moved to NY and it was the most satisfying, albeit very low paying, job I've ever had.
It just makes me sick to know that this decades-old organization is being targeted by the right wing with these smears.
Really, I can't even fully read the articles about it. The thought of such a good organization suffering the full force of right wing malevolence, sans any celebrated or well-heeled individuals using a broad platform to come to their defense, is just vile!!
The Red Cross, the Salvation Army & United Way are all good charities that had MAJOR scandals, but everyone recognizes that the actions of a few in no way indicates bad intentions or ineffectiveness of the organizations as a whole.
But ACORN... they don't get that consideration. Damn!
The wingnuts are the problem. They have managed to win elections since I worked in my first election (at age 12 for Adlai E. Stevenson in 1952) by trickery, smear, fear, lying and all types of fraud imaginable. Their Achilles is huge voter turnout. They are terrified by the prospect that people will register and vote in large numbers. That's how we will beat them. Meanwhile, we can't be bullied by their lies. We have to stay on point; and the point is this ACORN scam is just that. Some dishonest (and evidently lazy and stupid) employees of ACORN registered fictitious voters. None of these fictitious people ever voted. When confronted by a windbag wingnut spouting the 'voter fraud' talking point, we have to draw them out first to see how much they really know and then slap their argument down with the ultimate weapon - the truth. The ACORN kerfluffle is not a case of voter fraud but a case of employee fraud. ACORN is the victim, not the perpetrator. Turn their argument back on them. These kinds non-scandals are designed to energize the wingnut base and their trashy fellow travelers. We must not be intimidated, we must win!
Would it surprise anyone if a lot of the fraud was orchestrated by the Rovian disciples of the GOP, just to discredit ACORN, and cause a phony scandal?
I believe that everyone has a right to vote but it's shameful that people have to be rounded up and bused to polling places and in some cases bribed to get them to vote for their candidates. I'm sick of stupid and uninformed voters deciding elections. And what's wrong with having to show an I.D when voting. In Louisiana we've been having to do that for 30 years. Even though I know the poll workers personally where I vote, I still have to show a picture I.D. every time.
It has just become too easy to vote. This is a right and privelage that I believe should only be for people who want to take the time and burden, if any, to exercise. The lazy people who won't get off their asses to become informed about issues shold stay home and let the rest of us who really care decide who will represent us.
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