The Sky is Falling!

So proclaim McCain and Palin as they sanctimoniously express concern about ACORN voting fraud “destroying the fabric of democracy.” The only problem with this McCain/Palin Chicken Little act is that it is based on … hold onto your hat…lies, half-truths and twisted facts! How could that be so? Would the honorable John McCain be party to such nefarious doings? Would a just-like-you-and-me hockey mom participate in such reprehensible behavior? What could possibly be behind this manufactured crisis?

Maybe it could have something to do with the Republican’s twenty-five year crusade to promote the myth of voting fraud. This myth is necessary to support their arguments that restrictive voting laws are needed. Laws that will help them suppress black and Hispanic voter turnout – something they deem necessary to their survival as a party.

Just think about that for a minute. One of the leading political parties in the United States believes it needs to suppress votes in order to survive. Doesn’t that lead to the conclusion that the Republicans think their beliefs and policies will not get them honestly elected or keep them in power. WOW! What an unspoken but proven-by-actions admission that is!

To accomplish this voter suppression, they needed to promote uproar about voter-fraud and through the years they have repeatedly cultivated this myth. Since it would be even better, to have a record of voter fraud indictments, starting in 2002, the Department of Justice required every U.S. attorney to designate a district election officer, whose job it would be to end this “epidemic” of electoral fraud. These officers were required to attend annual training seminars, where they were taught how to investigate, prosecute and convict fraudulent voters. With statutes in place, investigators trained, and funding available, they were ready to go. And… nothing happened… because when it comes to voter fraud in America, there's nothing there. Bush's own Justice Department found virtually no organized voting fraud – none, nada, zilch, zero. Voter fraud is a myth -- not an urban or rural myth, but a Republican myth.

Between 2002 – 2005 the Feds prosecuted 38 cases of voter fraud. 14 of them were thrown out, 11 ended in guilty pleas and 13 in convictions. Despite a statement in the Justice Department manual on election crime that these cases "may present an easier means of obtaining convictions than do other forms of public corruption," federal attorneys have failed in their efforts to accumulate convictions, for the simple reason that incidents of fraud have been few and far between.

Nonetheless, Rove and other administration officials singled out, for nonperformance on voter fraud, 5 of the 12 federal prosecutors that were fired last year. Interestingly, all five came from states (Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington and Wisconsin) where Republicans were in tight election contests. Hmmmm.

So, what is this ACORN business really about? For sure it is not about serious voter fraud perpetrated by the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN).

The only fraud committed was against ACORN itself. ACORN hired 13,000 workers to register a remarkable 1.3 million new voters. And a few of them turned in registration forms with inaccurate and even made-up names to get credit for work they didn't do. ACORN fired them and turned them over to the authorities.

ACORN reported the fraudulent registration forms. In most states, ACORN is required by law to submit all forms collected whether they appear to be bogus or not—that way election officials, not partisan groups, can make the call. ACORN flags cards that may not be legitimate. And in many places, the charges of fraud only came up because ACORN was the one who flagged the cards!

This won't have any impact on the election. No one is allowed to vote unless they are properly registered. And there is no evidence of false registrations actually leading to organized voting fraud.

If McCain and Palin honestly care about the integrity of our voting system, they will condemn rather than contribute to the Republicans’ promotion of this myth. The only thing close to voter fraud I see is the Republican effort to suppress voter turnout.