ACORN replies to the rightwing smears.

[unusualmusic_lj_archive]

I can't even excerpt. Just go read the whole of this

What happened? ACORN office were raided by the police, even though the organisation had been vigourously and proactively checking its stuff and sharing info with the authorities



And I'll probaly have to change the name of this series from voter fraud to "defrauding voters" But then, why can't we liberals redefine words, for a change?


While we're at it, Provisional ballots, the new hanging chad?"

Voter Purges Could Cause Florida-like Presidential Recounts


Why are convicetd felons being told in battleground states that they can't vote?

"Pennsylvania law is clear about ex-felons' right to vote, and parole and probation officials need to be equally clear in giving people accurate information about this important right," Walczak said.

It's been more than eight years since the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down a five-year waiting period from the time of release before ex-felons could vote, yet the ACLU says a number of voter informational Web sites still state that former offenders must wait five years before they can register to vote.

Unfortunately, what happened in Pennsylvania may not be an isolated case. The Commonwealth is just one of several so-called "battleground" states that have changed their laws on felon voting since the 2000 presidential election, and experts say as the November general election approaches, confusion reigns. As a result, voting rights groups say that thousands of eligible voters around the country may be getting the wrong information about whether they can or can't vote this year.

State laws prohibiting convicted felons from voting have been around for more than a hundred years and have only recently begun to be repealed. Critics have long blasted the laws as being unfairly skewed to disenfranchise minority and low-income voters. What's more, it's widely known that felon voting laws have been used in partisan efforts to disenfranchise eligible voters.

In the 2000 presidential election, for instance, thousands of mostly Black voters were purged from election rolls in Florida after being wrongly identified as ex-felons. Writing for The Nation on the eve of the 2004 presidential election, investigative journalist Greg Palast, who had broken the Florida story four years earlier, concluded: "If you're Black, voting in America is a game of chance."MORE

Comments

[vee-ecks.livejournal.com]

Having done this kind of paid canvassing in the past, as soon as this ACORN nonsense started, I went "Really, that's the whole evil story?" The Wiki article for the organization now has a full list of their CRIMES, and it's hilarious. It's almost all "Some guy in Ohio faked some registrations, got caught, was convicted." Wow, that's a scandal, all right.

They've had a few lately involving thousands of fake registrations, which is either hiring bad contractors or a bad practice growing in their own ranks they need to address, but either way, it hardly points to major issues with the organization.

I do have to take issue with one of their defense points, though: again, having done with, the fact that workers are paid by the hour, not the voter sign-up, is kind of a dodge. No, you don't get any commission in *this* kind of door-to-door sales, but you still have sales quotas to meet, per team, per individual, etc. Some people make up registrations to make quota because they can't get the registrations, are afraid to ask, or they just plain like throwing all their flyers in the garbage and getting high for four hours and then meeting the van with faked sheets. It happens.