So You Want To Steal An Election…

Posted by Jill in US Election 2008.

During last week’s final debate, in between the massive amounts of blinking and awkward facial ticks, John McCain accused the community organizing group ACORN of being “on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.” This is a pretty serious charge leveled by a man whose own party orchestrated the disenfranchisement  of tens of thousands (mostly minority) voters in Florida during the 2000 election through illegal “felon purging”. So how is ACORN stealing our democracy? Purging voter rolls? Using poll watchers to intimidate voters? Not even close.

ACORN, which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, “is a community-based organization that advocates for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, health care and other social issues” [wikipedia]. As we know, the GOP is no fan of community organizing  or low-income families, so ACORN is an obvious target. Like many other civic organizations, ACORN conducted a voter registration drive and paid canvassers to register voters. The majority of canvassers did exactly that. A few did not. It’s just like when you had to do that group science project in high school - a few of you did all the work while the rest just half-assed it, and everyone got in trouble. ACORN flagged as many fraudulent registrations as they could, but some slipped through the cracks. ACORN in no way endorsed or encouraged fraudulent registrations, and has a zero-tolerance policy  for such activities. This not some vast left-wing conspiracy, it’s your lazy chem lab partner. 

However, McCain and the right-wing pundits are forgetting one crucial thing: PEOPLE WHO DON’T EXIST CAN’T VOTE. No matter how many false registrations make it through, it will not change the number of voters. Was it right for those workers to falsify registrations? of course not, but is this really “destroying the fabric of democracy”? Hardly. In fact, McCain might want to check out who is behind the allegations of election fraud in 2008. He shouldn’t be surprised that the majority of voter intimidation tactics and voter fraud are being perpetuated by his own party.

As early voting starts, stories are coming out about irregularities and intimidation at the polls. Here is a very small list of what I think are significant indicators of who is really trying to fuck up 2008:

- Mark Jacoby, owner Young Political Majors, a firm hired by the California Republican Party to register voters and collection petition signatures, was recently arrested for fraudulently registering himself at a previous California address to meet a state requirement that signature gathers be eligible to vote in the state of California. Jacoby tricked voters into registering Republican or switching party registration by having them a sign what he claimed was a petition for tougher penalties against child molesters. He probably could have registered more fake Republicans if the petition was for legalizing heroin or gay abortions or terrorism. You know, stuff liberals love. [Reuters]

• Florida’s “no match, no vote” law has caused the rejection of 846 voter registrations from college students and minorities because it requires driver’s licenses and social security numbers to match the information in government databases. This is causing problems with college students who have out-of-state driver’s licenses, and Hispanic voters with hyphenated last names. The League of Women voters has pressed on Governor Charlie Crist to just check identification at the polls, but Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning will not relent. Of course he won’t - the law isn’t affecting Republicans as much as it’s affecting Democrats. Katherine Harris taught him well. [Orlando Sentinel]
• A Michigan Republican Party Chairman wants to prevent voters whose homes were foreclosed on from voting. Since we all know, thanks to Ann Coulter, that minorities are responsible for the housing crisis, guess who is going to be disenfranchised here? Hint: Not Ann Coulter (but she’s a woman, so she shouldn’t be voting anyway) [Michigan Messenger]
• Hundreds of New York absentee voters received ballots printed with “Barack Osama”. Officials say it’s an honest mistake. I beg to differ. The ‘b’ is not next to the ’s’ key. Since when has Sarah Palin been a New York election official? [CNN]

Obviously this is by no means an inclusive list, but it’s a grave indicator of the injustices we’re going to face in two weeks. As Obama’s poll numbers increase, Republicans are going to become even more desperate to secure this election for McCain…and making damn sure Mickey Mouse isn’t voting Democrat.

US Election 2008 |