ACORN

Just saw this article on how ACORN operates to get voters to register. This is just mindboggling that this is allowed to continue. Then I find out we fund this group to the tune of 400 million off budget whichmeans its funded outside the budget in Congress.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10092008/news/politics/nuts__132771.htm


This group needs stopped

Boy howdy, I've been doing a lot of math today. Using the actual numbers from that article, and the greatest amount of false and irregular registration, (53,000 new registered voters this year, and 380 irregularities), the number of questionable registrations comes to .007 percent. Statistically....zero.

The link above that says:

Quote :

ACORN's Cleveland spokesman, Kris Harsh, said his group collected 100,000 voter-registration cards; only about 50 were questionable, he claimed.

As for workers, "We watch them like a hawk," he said.

It is the difference between anecdotal and statistical data. I do believe that aggressive recruiter might be "over soliciting", but there are checks and balances to make sure that the ballets are weeded out. Even if twice the number that are found are allowed to slip through...you are still talking about a .014 percent. Statistically zero. In other words, for every 10,000 new voter registrations, one "might" be questionable.

The question to me isn't how many they are registering incorrectly or illegally but rather that they are doing it. The governement is giving them money to register which i wholeheartdly disagree with. If people are interested in voting they will register. There are exceptions for people who can't get out but now you can go on line. At some point giving money out to groups such as this has to stop. We do not have funds to support all groups. Money belts have to tightened in Washington and its got to start now.

amainachen wrote:

The question to me isn't how many they are registering incorrectly or illegally but rather that they are doing it. The governement is giving them money to register which i wholeheartdly disagree with. If people are interested in voting they will register. There are exceptions for people who can't get out but now you can go on line. At some point giving money out to groups such as this has to stop. We do not have funds to support all groups. Money belts have to tightened in Washington and its got to start now.

I guess you need to take that up with the govornment, amain. ACORN was given money to go out and register voters. They seem to be doing just that. There certainly is oversight, as shown by the number of articles detailing how some are concerned about irregular registration, and are looking over the shoulder of ACORN. Rather than seeing all this is reason to curtail all ACORN registrations, I think better to rest assured that there will be very few registration irregularities. I hazard to guess that the oversight of ACORN will be greater than the oversight of the 700 billion bailout monies.

spongie wrote:

amainachen wrote:

The question to me isn't how many they are registering incorrectly or illegally but rather that they are doing it. The governement is giving them money to register which i wholeheartdly disagree with. If people are interested in voting they will register. There are exceptions for people who can't get out but now you can go on line. At some point giving money out to groups such as this has to stop. We do not have funds to support all groups. Money belts have to tightened in Washington and its got to start now.

I guess you need to take that up with the govornment, amain. ACORN was given money to go out and register voters. They seem to be doing just that. There certainly is oversight, as shown by the number of articles detailing how some are concerned about irregular registration, and are looking over the shoulder of ACORN. Rather than seeing all this is reason to curtail all ACORN registrations, I think better to rest assured that there will be very few registration irregularities. I hazard to guess that the oversight of ACORN will be greater than the oversight of the 700 billion bailout monies.

we agree to disagree. They are paid to register not make up registrations or use Dallas cowboy football players as fake names. There job depending on who you believe is to register and not have someone register numerous times or make up names. There funds are another matter. Depending on whom you believe there too. As for the 700 billion bailout that is another discussion but I hope an independent overseer is used to watch over this bailout

can someone explain to me how in the world a person can register to vote these days, without proper i.d.?? way back when, i not only furnished my drvrs licenses, social security card but also proof of address! i can't even make any changes on my cell phone w/o furnishing a soc security # and a drvs license in person!

it's a good gesture to encourage people to vote, but i've never heard of this form of recruitment 'til this year.

coocooitstrue wrote:

can someone explain to me how in the world a person can register to vote these days, without proper i.d.?? way back when, i not only furnished my drvrs licenses, social security card but also proof of address! i can't even make any changes on my cell phone w/o furnishing a soc security # and a drvs license in person!

it's a good gesture to encourage people to vote, but i've never heard of this form of recruitment 'til this year.

Registering to vote and actually voting are two different things. You are only required to produce your id that matches your registration information when you actually vote. So, I don't expect the Dallas cowboys or Terrell Owens etc. to show up at the polling places and be given a ballot to vote.

ACORN and voting recruitment has been around prior to this year. I can recall seeing on-the-street recruiters in my town in at least the two prior elections.

As for the concern with absentee ballots, you have to provide verifying ID before the ballot is even mailed to you. In Ohio, this is the procedure:

Download and complete the Ohio Application for Absent Voter's Ballot. Be sure to include one of the following: an Ohio driver's license number or the last four digits of your social security number. If you do not have one of these numbers, then you must include either:

a copy of a current and valid photo ID that shows your name,
a military identification that shows your name
or a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document (other than a voter registration notification mailed by a board of elections) that shows your name and address


Other than that...I'll just "word" what Spongie has said.

My understanding is that ACORN are mandated to turn in every form filled out. Of course they recognize that the Dallas football team and Michey Mouse are not real voters, but they are told to send in all registration forms. They do red flags those questionable registration forms for the oversight committee. These are the crazy wrong registree that are tauted in the newspaper articles. As I stated above, the numbers of these double residence, Micky Mouse/Dallas football team registration forms are exceedingly small, less than one one-hundreths of one percent in most of the articles bring up abuses. Enough to make a good story, not enough to effect the election, even if the numbers of abuses increased one hundred fold.

spongie wrote:

My understanding is that ACORN are mandated to turn in every form filled out. Of course they recognize that the Dallas football team and Michey Mouse are not real voters, but they are told to send in all registration forms. They do red flags those questionable registration forms for the oversight committee. These are the crazy wrong registree that are tauted in the newspaper articles. As I stated above, the numbers of these double residence, Micky Mouse/Dallas football team registration forms are exceedingly small, less than one one-hundreths of one percent in most of the articles bring up abuses. Enough to make a good story, not enough to effect the election, even if the numbers of abuses increased one hundred fold.

Much better to concentrate on the positive....new voters mean more people engaged in the election process. How can anyone find that not a good thing?

With all do respect I do not find it a good or positive thing if these votes are fraudulent or bought, on the contrary, I find it tainting the integrity of the democratic voting process.

paminhlwd wrote:

With all do respect I do not find it a good or positive thing if these votes are fraudulent or bought, on the contrary, I find it tainting the integrity of the democratic voting process.

I don't know if you are responding to my post or not, but of course, fraudulent registration is not a good thing. What I was saying is that the fraudulent registrations do not taint VOTING or election results since they are either discarded prior to election day. Or if anyone makes it through that and tries to actually vote that is fraudulently registered, it is unlikely they will pass the identification process.

With likewise due respect, the positive in this grassroots effort is that people who have not voted before or who have not felt their vote would matter are now taking an interest and registering to vote and voting. That good far outweighs any possibility of bad.

spongie wrote:

Boy howdy, I've been doing a lot of math today. Using the actual numbers from that article, and the greatest amount of false and irregular registration, (53,000 new registered voters this year, and 380 irregularities), the number of questionable registrations comes to .007 percent. Statistically....zero.

The link above that says:

Quote :

ACORN's Cleveland spokesman, Kris Harsh, said his group collected 100,000 voter-registration cards; only about 50 were questionable, he claimed.

As for workers, "We watch them like a hawk," he said.

It is the difference between anecdotal and statistical data. I do believe that aggressive recruiter might be "over soliciting", but there are checks and balances to make sure that the ballets are weeded out. Even if twice the number that are found are allowed to slip through...you are still talking about a .014 percent. Statistically zero. In other words, for every 10,000 new voter registrations, one "might" be questionable.

wrong is wrong, whether its statistically zero. If they are registering people either incorrectly or fraudulently then it is wrong and they should be punished. Everyone has the right to vote if they are registered properly and whether its 1 or 100 that is registered incorrectly it is wrong.

Internal recruiting discrepancies of ACORN are neither the fault or responsibility of Obama or McCain. It is up to ACORN to manage and discipline their employees.

Again, it does not skew the election/voting process.

How come no one complained about ACORN in prior elections??? Or Rock the Vote or other campaigns to get new registered voters???