The American Voting Public Won’t Fall For It
During the last televised Presidential debate, Senator John McCain decried that the problems at voter registration charity ACORN (Association of Community Reform Now) would lead to undermining the fundamentals of democracy. Eventual President Elect Barack Obama smiled and laughed at the vehement charges. Was the President Elect being cavalier or was he trying to cover up voter fraud?
What Was The Problem?
The problem brought to light was that many workers for ACORN were making up voter registration forms. ACORN workers get paid a commission from how many number of people they can get to register to vote. The more filled-in voter registration forms they turn in, the more they get paid. So, naturally, some workers tried to cheat.
By federal law, all voter registration forms have to be turned in to the authorities, even if they are obviously faked, such as with the named and addresses of professional athletes who lived many states away. Mickey Mouse was registered to vote in Florida. ACORN would note on the top of such applications that they thought this may not be a legitimate registration, but the form still had to be sent to the proper voter registration authorities.
When state officials received a high number of obviously faked voter registration forms – even if ACORN noted they were most likely fakes – states tend to want to want to find out what is going on and launch an official investigation. This is voter registration fraud.
How Serious Is Voter Registration Fraud?
Voter registration fraud is more annoying than anything else. But you could fill out one thousand fake forms out to be registered – but on voting day, none of those one thousand will actually go to the polls and cast a vote. Each person would not get more than one voter registration card. Any suspicious voter registration forms would be frozen and a voter registration card would not be made or sent out.
This is what Barack Obama was laughing about. He knew Senator McCain was making a fool out of himself on national television by revealing how ignorant he was of voter registration fraud and the voter registration process.
In the end, Senator McCain shot his already faltering campaign in the foot by making such an impassioned plea that ACORN was trying to participate in voter fraud. Voter fraud was a big problem in American history and remains a problem in some countries in the world today. McCain and his aids intimated that Obama supporters would somehow amass dozens of voter registration cards and therefore get to vote many times because they had the cards. McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis even went so far as say to the national press, “If left uncorrected, these numerous investigations and accusations of voter fraud with ACORN could produce a nightmare scenario on Election Day.”
These accusations were completely unjustified by the facts of how voter registration in America works. They only served to try and scare people into voting against Obama. Fortunately, the American voting public wouldn’t fall for this line.
For more information on voter fraud, visit http://www.acornscandal.com.