— Brad Friedman
So where’s the “voter fraud”?
Fox “News” and its Rupert Murdoch-owned print brethren, the New York Post, continue to bang the GOP’s phony ACORN “voter fraud” drum, but as far as I can tell, they’ve failed to come up with a single incident of any actual voter fraud committed by the dastardly “left-wing extremists.”
Yes, Ann Coulter has committed felony voter fraud, but neither of the Murdoch outfits has yet to note that point, even while they go wall-to-wall with misleading reports claiming that ACORN is committing massive “voter fraud” on behalf of the Democrats.
So, as it’s now been revealed that John McCain himself was a keynote speaker at a 2006 ACORN rally (on immigration reform) in Florida, where he declared to the ACORN volunteers in the room that they are “What makes America special,” and as I’ve been going back and forth with commenters on my “Republican Voter Fraud Hoax” piece at the UK’s Guardian (which today has shot up to one of their most read items), still, nobody seems to be able to show me an instance of any actual voter fraud committed by ACORN, or even anybody who registered via ACORN, for that matter.
Those who wish to believe in the hoax, however, attempt to link to article after article about allegations of voter fraud carried out by ACORN. And yet, the articles themselves — if one bothers to actually read them — reveal that either 1) They describe allegations and investigations brought by Republican agents, with little or no evidence of any wrong doing, and certainly no “voter fraud,” 2) Where voter registration fraud has occurred it has been by rogue ACORN employees, originally reported to authorities by ACORN themselves (who are the actual victims of any such fraud by their employees), or 3) Smoke and mirrors are used to cloud the fact that not a single fraudulent vote has actually been cast by anyone.
Let’s take a look at just two recent, oft-linked, oft-quoted New York Post articles from today and last week to give you an idea of how the scam works, and how the rightwing suckers fall for it. Every time…
Today, the Post is running an article headlined: “4,000 SHADY SIGN-UPS: Bogus Voter Booted Amid Probe of Acorn.”
The story is cited by one gullible chump after another in comments at wingnut Michelle Malkin’s site today, where she reports on former OH Republican Sec. of State J. Kenneth Blackwell’s rightwing outfit in Ohio which has decided to file a RICO case against ACORN (just doing their part to help build the fiction, naturally, though Malkin doesn’t mention that it’s comrade Blackwell’s outfit). The ethically-bankrupt Malkin, by the way, had also falsely reported, just days before the 2004 election in Ohio, that ACORN was registering terrorists to vote in the Buckeye State! So this days-before-the-election scam is not a new one [PDF] for the GOP, it’s just being trumped up this year more than ever.
Today’s Post article is accompanied by a huge photo of a snarling, street-lookin’ black dude who claims to “have signed 73 voter registration forms for Acorn,” according to the caption along with it.
The story’s lede reports that “An Ohio man who registered to vote several times cast a bogus ballot with a fake address in a vote-fraud case stemming from ACORN, officials said today” and goes on to say that Darnell Nash (not pictured with the article) “had registered to vote repeatedly from an address that belonged to an actual registered voter.”
VOTER FRAUD! Right? Well, right. But ACORN had nothing to do with it. But you’d have to read carefully to notice.
The story goes on to explain (apparently to wingnuts who don’t bother to read beyond the first two grafs, if that much) that Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) Board of Elections “officials had been in contact with Nash since the summer, and informed him he had to stop repeat registering.”
So the Board of Elections already knew about the problem with this voter months ago, were already given information about his fraudulent registrations as turned in, and flagged by ACORN, as they must do, by law, even after confirming in their quality control process that a registration is problematic in some way, and yet the story hits Murdoch’s Post today, amidst a flurry of ginned-up Fox “News” panic about ACORN “voter fraud.” Go figure.
But the Mickey Mouse nature of the argument becomes more apparent, as the article goes on to quote Cuyahoga Election Director Jane Platten, who says: “He came in on 9/30 and Mr. Nash again registered to vote at [someone else’s] address, and he cast a ballot.”
So Nash did commit voter fraud, it was caught by officials, and it had nothing to do with ACORN, as Nash registered himself at the county’s Board of Elections.
Of course, had Nash tried to vote under the registration(s) he filed with ACORN, he’d not have been able to vote, since federal law — the Help America Vote Act of 2002 — requires that ID must be shown, when voting the first time, by anybody who hadn’t registered in person originally.
On those grounds, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Mary Poppins, and all the other Disney characters the wingnuts like to point to as having been “registered by ACORN” would not be able to vote either, unless they could prove they were actually Mickey, Donald, or Mary.
The Post even goes on to describe how the bi-partisan members of the Cuyahoga County election board “downplayed any voter fraud,” and how ACORN has been instrumental in helping them to ferret out fraud of any type, by anybody:
And Platten insisted that officials with ACORN have offered “any and all” help in probing the questionable activities. Katy Gall, the Ohio state director for ACORN, said her group is cooperating fully with the investigation.
She added that her group has fired anyone who was found soliciting duplicate registrations.
ACORN, whose political arm has endorsed Democratic nominee Obama, has signed up more than 1.3 million voters for this cycle.
ACORN adviser Scott Levenson said, “If one of the 13,000 [people] we hired is potentially a bad apple in the bunch, we encourage the authorities to prosecute as appropriate or anyone that did the wrong thing. We discipline, [and] we fire workers who [abuse their position] . . . we encourage prosecutors to follow suit.”
He also strenuously denied suggestions that the group pays canvassers by the number of names they sign up, and that they have quotas.
On that last point, it should be noted that ACORN’s fact sheets have pointed out time and again that they don’t pay per registration. “Our canvassers are paid by the hour, not by the card,” ACORN has noted, before pointing out that “ACORN has a zero-tolerance policy for deliberately falsifying registrations, and in the cases where our internal quality controls have identified this happening we have fired the workers involved and turned them in to election officials and law-enforcement.”
I contacted ACORN’s communication’s director, Charles D. Jackson, to press him on that point, since so many — even those in the progressive blogosphere — have been misreporting that point by suggesting that ACORN’s 13,000 voter registration canvassers are paid by the registration, or are forced to meet some kind of quota. They are not, according to Jackson.
As he confirmed to me via email: “We don’t have a quota system. We have a performance standard system based on the quality of the cards, which includes complete cards, phone numbers, good phone numbers, but it’s not based on quota. No one has been fired for not completing a number of cards. The number of cards turned in per day have ranged from 12-25, 10-15. Some canvassers turned in between 1-5 cards, and were not terminated. We terminate people when they falsify cards, turn in too many incomplete cards, and consistent bad phone numbers.”
So, no ACORN voter fraud in today’s New York Post if you actually bother to pay attention. The Republicans, desperate to come up with something, anything, that may offer them an advantage at the polls — now, on Election Day, or thereafter in legal challenges — are willing to say and do anything to continue the myth of Democratic voter fraud, particularly by those ACORN “leftists” who had the temerity to sign up some 1.3 million low-income (and thus, Democratic-leaning) voters over the past two years.
(Those 1.3 million largely-Democratic registrations, by the way, are what this is all about, if you’ve yet to figure that out.)
But, how about last week’s story the wingnuts were linking to all over the web over the last several days, the one trumpeted by Murdoch’s Fox “News” for days now, and headlined “1 VOTER, 72 REGISTRATIONS: ‘Acorn Paid Me in Cash & Cigs.'”
There’s our man Freddie pictured again (apparently he must have registered one more time since this original October 10 report, as today’s Post piece notes he registered 73 times. But facts, schmacks, right?)
And what did the original Post article tell us, as reported by Murdoch’s paper, on the same day that the RNC released a Fox & Friends transcript — in which the hosts discuss this same report — verbatim, as an official party press release?
That article details how Freddie claims to have been pressured to register 72 times, over an 18-month period, by ACORN canvassers, to fill out registration forms in Cuyahoga County.
But note this quickly mentioned point in the report: “Johnson used the same information on all of his registration cards, and officials say they usually catch and toss out duplicate registrations.”
In other words, Johnson registered to vote, 72 times, at the same address. That, of course, would entitle Freddie to exactly 1 vote, just like you and me. And before casting it, he’d have to show ID confirming he was who he registered as, and that he lived at that address, as per federal law.
So again I ask: where’s the voter fraud?
Doesn’t matter. Firing up the GOP base, playing to their worst nightmares and darkest (self) instincts, in hopes of wreaking havoc at the polls, knocking folks off the voter rolls, and challenging them on Election Day and beyond is all that matters.
The once-honorable John McCain knows it, but it didn’t stop him from parroting the same garbage on the stump last week (video here). And Sarah Palin (probably) knows it, but it didn’t stop the RNC — who definitely know it’s all nonsense — from sending out a fundraising email in her name on Monday, claiming that “The left-wing activist group, ACORN, is now under investigation for voter registration fraud in a number of battleground states… We can’t allow leftist groups like ACORN to steal this election.”
If she believes what the RNC wrote for her, Palin would do well then to call out her her running mate, McCain, for “palling around with” those “left-wing activists” two years ago, when he lauded them while serving as their keynote speaker at that 2006 immigratoin reform rally in Florida.
As to being “under investigation,” well, Sarah Palin and John McCain are currently “under investigation” for attempting to steal the election in all 50 states. I should know, I’m the one investigating. And I’ve got at least as much evidence — if not much, much more — than they do, to prove it.
So where’s the “ACORN voter fraud”? I hope you wingnuts will write in to let me know. Please feel free to post the link but do me a favor, read the article first before you bother to send me the link, because it most likely shows no such thing. Suckers.
the “GOP’s ACORN ‘Voter Fraud’ Scam” is here…
Recently related articles…
10/7/08: ‘Stunt’ Raid at NV ACORN Office
10/8/08: RNC Issues Fox ‘News’ Transcript on ACORN ‘Voter Fraud’ as Press Release
10/9/08: GOP Election Official Claims ACORN ‘Voter Fraud’ in MO
10/13/08: At UK’s Guardian – “The Republican Voter Fraud Hoax”
10/13/08: McCain Was Keynote Speaker at 2006 ACORN Rally
From symbol of the mighty oak, the strongest tree, to hybrid weed seed packets of destruction. This pisses me off. Like you didn’t know already. If the election officials were doing their job there would be no need for ACORN other than as a food source or planting oak trees. But they aren’t doing their job, they’re assholes.
Thank you Brad for exposing the hipocracy. The folks attacking ACORN are up to old tricks and desperate manuevers.
As I told my Republican dad, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.
Herr Olbermann knocked it down pretty good tonight, so did Ms Maddow
Great article! I will be forwarding this to people to read. it is critical for people to understand.
Thanks again.
Such a breath of fresh air. Great post Brad. Thanks for all the hard work…here’s to hoping the truth sets us free!
Hey Brad,
THANKS!! for all the great reporting on this. I’ve been using your articles as daily ammunition in my “mini war” over this subject.
I’m a moderator on the Kansas State Fans.com website. I graduated from KState in 1991 with a degree in American Foreign Policy. I’m originally from PA, but went to school in KS and learned very early on just how conservative central Kansas is.
Anywho, I’ve been waging a mini war with one of the other members on the site. As you can imagine, KSF.com is populated primarily with conservative folks. Most of them are pretty good though and we do have lively debates (especially regarding politics). However, there is one small group that is VEHEMENTLY conservative and religious.
When the news broke about the possibility of improper voter registrations on our site, I immediately did some research into the matter so I could counter the arguments (if possible). We’ve got 4-5 threads a day now with screaming headlines, lots of exclamation points and much gnashing of teeth about “voter fraud”.
The sad and frustrating thing is, as I’ve explained eleventy billion times to these nabobs, submitting an improper registration IS NOT “voter fraud”. It only becomes voter fraud when someone actually shows up to vote. So no matter how many Mickey Mouses (Mickey Mice?) get turned in by ACORN (or any other group), they won’t be showing up to vote on election day. In fact, the League of Women Voters did a comprehensive study of the 2004 Ohio election and found exactly FOUR illegal votes out of over 9 million cast in the Presidential election.
But no matter how many times I explain this whole thing, there are always more threads with “VOTER FRAUD!!!” coming on the boards. UGH!
But I’ll keep fighting these pernicious smears, just as you’re doing.
good job, brad. it’s imperative that all of us who want a fair election familiarize ourselves w/these facts to counter the hateful hardly-ever-right wing meme.
Where’s the fraud???? State authorities found ACORN voter registration for Terrel Owens and Tony Romo in Nevada.
http://ap.google.com/article/AL...QGgdgD93LVDS80
-See for yourself.
Great job Brad!
“Ann Coulter has committed voter fraud…”
Bupkus. That pile of garbage was tossed out long ago. For the umpteenth time, Florida officials didn’t even press charges.
Joey said:
Thanks for the link, Joey. Would have liked it even better had you bothered to read my article above. Even the last paragraph of it would have helped.
No, neither TO or Romo voted fraudulently or otherwise in Nevada. No voter fraud. Both were turned in as fraudulent registrations by ACORN, as they are required to do by law. But thanks for playing.
Damail said:
Why not, Damail? Any idea? Especially since the Palm Beach County Police Dept. said (as does the documentation) that she committed two first degree misdemeanors and one third degree felony?
Here’s a hint, as if you’d bother to actually read it:
https://bradblog.com/?p=4538
ACORN has been doing great work here in St. Louis for at least 25 years that I know of and they are periodically vilified by local politicians for their activism. There are people in St. Louis that wouldn’t have jobs, or a roof over their head except for ACORN’s community activism. To see them vilified and used so shabbily, locally or nationally is painful. The Republicans have no shame.
A link to the ACORN ‘accomplishment’ list is at the bottom. I recall some of these battles in St. Louis, most specifically the push for jobs. CORE (Congress OF Racial Equality) was actively involved with this issue also. St. Louis and St. Louis business’ would give large, new construction projects to universally white male developers that would bring in out-of-state, low paid workers and sub-contractors. ACORN and CORE demanded local minority sub-contractors and labor be hired for some of the work.
They wanted a 15% cut of the action for minorities. Considering that St. Louis was about 45% minority at the time, virtually guaranteeing an 85% share of work to local Bigs in the construction industry and carpetbaggers was a pretty good deal but the opposition was thermonuclear in intensity. Eventually the city (as I recall the city stepped in) did negotiate or mediate for minority hiring at some level though.
The right hates ACORN for a number of reasons and I just figure if they’re bichin’ about ACORN then ACORN is doing something right.
http://acorn.org/index.php?id=2726
Brad, this is great reporting–but what’s going on in Ohio? It seems like Brunner is losing control with the latest ruling re: verifying voter registrations! Are you covering this?
This may be a bit off topic , but the hatred being stirred up by these allegations is sparking the calls to “kill him” . I’m not sure where these rallies took place , but I did not hear of the secret service taking these people into custody who were inciting violence against a presidential candidate . I called the secret service washington branch to inquire tuesday morning and the rep. said that they “probably ” had dealt with these people. I told him that it would be incompetent if they didn’t take them into custody .WE SHOULD ALL DEMAND THAT THEY SHOW ZERO TOLERANCE FOR THESE DEATH THREATS . THEIR NUMBER IS 415-744-9026 IN SAN FRANCISCO.
Olbermann “Crock the Vote” segment is now out, he debunks the ACORN myth with Allen Raymond.
Check it out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8vgR6WvcS0
Here comes the OCTOBER surprise. The judicial assault, as evident in Ohio. Voter suppression mandated by GOP stacked toe the line, lock stepped courts.
I wish Martin Luther King was still here, so we would march in masses to protest the assault on voters that has begun.
Brad,
i typed this link onto my city’s newspaper site and a log cabin site came up.
http://www.bradlog.com/?p=6453 i don’t know what’s going on. i put it on a politcal comment and now look like i want people to order log cabins any advice?
gina
[Gina – I don’t think you should worry about it. People can probably figure out the error, or you could make another comment correcting it by putting in the missing “b”…. –99]
… just because it’s on TV Don’t make it true.
… Just because it’s on Radio Don’t make it true.
. . . and more and more often it’s NOT!
Would a CNN investigation be a more acceptable source?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRhrT22BsIY
Or is truth totally irrelevant to you?
Jack Tate, how do falsely filled out registration forms, which by law have to be turned in to the state by whoever collects them, equate to voter fraud?
If some dastardly ACORN radical registers mickey mouse and jimmy john’s sub shop to vote, is his or her intent to go into the polls on election day and cast a vote for them? Exactly how stupid do you think the board of elections has to be to add those names to the voter rolls, and how stupid do you think the local election watchers have to be to allow the same person to walk in multiple times and cast multiple votes?
If what I described is their intent, why would they register absurd names and known business establishments? Wouldn’t they want to be more subtle about if they wanted any measure of success?
My last question is, when Obama wins by lord knows how many votes, both electoral and popular, in November, how strong do you think your argument will be that he stole the election because of a couple thousand false registration forms in a few states?
Is critical thinking a completely foreign concept to you?
California GOP had Same Voter Registration Problems as ACORN in 2006, by Steven Rosenfeld
Well; said “Bvac” took the words right outa my mouth.
Poor Jack is seriously delusional.
Meanwhile I bet Jack also denies that the 2000 & 2004 elections were stolen by ELECTION FRAUD of which just ONE person can steal an election and leave no tangible trace.
Voter fraud is of ZERO concern as it would be impossible for enough people to get away with it to make any difference at all.
Hey Jack Tate–
Your CNN thing made me really mad, so I have written a lot. I hope this comment is not too long. It’s become more of an essay. Maybe I’ll have to get my own blog.
Watch the cnn video closely. Regarding the “ladies who have to go through the applications” that investigative-news-dude refers to several times–take a good look at the black lady in the foreground. If she is not in fact Bertha Lewis, the head of Acorn, then she sure is a dead ringer for her. Slightly different hair, no glasses, but hairstyles change, and so do glasses/contacts.
So my bet is that the news dude is talking about “the poor ladies who have to check all those registrations”, and deceiving us about who they are, when they are actually some ladies of Acorn.
Then there is this bit:
“…Some 5000 applications came in all filled out by Acorn and there they are,” (video here shows one application form being folded by a black lady to go into an envelope–NOT a pile of 5000 forms as audio suggests we should see…) “they went through the first 2100 of them and every single one of them, fraudulent…”
Now look–Acorn has to turn in, by law, all applications including those they suspect of being fraudulent, and they DO, and they flag them all. They bundle them together even. Yet we are being led here to believe that there just happened to be a run of 2100 bad ones in a row, all fraudulent, out of 5000 applications that should have all been good. B.S. I.e.: that’s just preposterous. My bet is that the “5000” forms they are talking about are the ones that Acorn themselves flagged as being ALL fruadulent and indeed, as expected, the first 2100 were, but then (maybe)they found one that turned out to be ok or maybe in fact all 5000 were fraudulent as expected. But that doesn’t make exciting news. No news in fact.
Note that News-Dude does NOT say, “Over 40% FORTY PERCENT !!! of the 5000 applications received from Acorn in Lake County were fraudulent!
That would have been an even more impressive way to have reported it, so you can be sure that is NOT what happened or they would have said it that way.
It’s obvious to me that they are reporting half-truths here to make a point that is not well-founded by the evidence in hand. Why would they do that? Why wouldn’t they? Perhaps they are being paid, either directly by their employers, or under the table to say this. We have seen fake news before in our mainstream media, hyped by willing shills. I think that’s what is going on here too. You can be sure there is a lot of money to be made by reporting this fake story that has no basis in fact.
Then there is “Jimmy Johns”, but listen carefully as they weasel their way though it without ever actually saying that the address on the application is the address of the sub-shop, instead of the legitimate residential address of someone whose name just happens to be “Jimmy Johns” because he just happens to be the completely reputable owner of that same sub shop! Is the name fraudulent? I don’t know, but neither do you. The point is that the CNN folks can’t automatically know either. And the news dude does not say emphatically, “I went to the address on this form, and it’s a sub shop, not a residence.” Isn’t that a more emphatic way of putting it? So why didn’t he say it that way? Because it’s fake news.
Even if they are ALL faked, they were all caught, right? So where’s the big fraud?
Note further the date, August 8th, 2008 of the Levi MacIntosh registration. Levi’s form is “obviously a fake” because Levi MacIntosh died in 2007. Never mind that poor Levi could have had a son with the same name. Did they check that? We don’t know but never mind that. Notice instead the date: August 8th was over 2 whole months ago. Why is this registration only being vetted by the county just now? This gives some credibility to the Acorn administrator’s complaint–the bald guy in the video who says that he wishes the election workers would do their jobs and process the forms when they send them in.
My bet is that the seasonal county election workers were all laid off for the summer as they always are. The county has been letting the registrations pile up to process them all in one batch once the period for registrations is finally over. Again this is what they always do, only this year, “Wow, Holy Smokes, Batman, look at the size of this pile!!!” So: “Let’s find some way of getting out of having to do ANY of these…let’s just disenfranchise ALL of these people, it will be so much easier, and besides, they’re mostly just black voters anyway, they won’t REALLy expect to vote. They’re used to it.” I’ll bet the mostly conservative county has many reasons to want to get out of having to process any of these registrations–it’s just work to them, helping their side to lose, so why do it. Better to go with the fake meme that they are ALL suspect and should not be processed. Or dump enough of them so that the polling places become madhouses of angry people complaining and not letting other voters get in, and make it all just a total fouled up mess, so that people have to wait hours and hours and never do end up getting to vote.
It worked once. It should work again. That’s my bet.
For the love of truth,
John Dowd
Jack Tate foolishly said:
Is the “truth totally irrelevant to” me? Ironic question, that one, Jack.
As I reported last week, following CNN’s garbage report, here’s the ACORN statement on the Indiana “Jimmy John’s” case (and the others that CNN apparently was unable to look into before misleading their viewers):
I accept your apology. But sorry, no soup (or “voter fraud”) for you!
The State of Louisiana has extended the broadest theory of enfranchisement in this country for many years. Here, one cannot discriminate in voting rights on the basis of sex, race, color, creed, physiological state (alive or dead) or existential condition (real or fictional). In this state, these people actually vote. ACORN is engaging in copyright infringement on the Enfranchisement Louisiana Factor (ELF) without proper compensation or acknowledgement. They will be hearing from the Louisiana Attorney General within days.
This is the real dastardliness of the RNC:
ACORN is under investigation… but because of RNC/Republican fraudulent accusations. There are some pretty smart people behind this smear campaign of ACORN. These same people also know that by bombarding the public with headlines containing “ACORN”, “voter fraud”, and “Democrats” their base will beleive it is so, as they also know that their base do not think for themselves.
Yeah. This whole situation follows the typical Republican M.O.
In 2004, people like Michelle Malkin would make wild claims that John Kerry shot himself to get a purple heart. Then the message would spread, and suddenly “there are serious questions about whether or not Sen. Kerry shot himself in Vietnam.” The cycle of bullshit culminates when scores of Republican delegates wear band-aids with purple hearts drawn on them on their cheek. Kerry has officially been swiftboated.
So Republicans try to use U.S. Attorneys to dig up cases of voter fraud in key states, fire the ones don’t follow their orders, and then create a phony outrage/scare out of thin air. The bullshit culminates with John McCain bringing up the “issue” at a presidential debate (you have to admire his ability to repeat wild-ass conspiracy theories to a national audience when he is so far down in the polls.)
We’re in for a big ruckus on election day, I hope Obama is ready for it.
Voter Fraud, ACORN and GOP, and what’s the fuss all about
To: Brad@bradblog.com
Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 4:17 PM
Dear Mr. Brad Friedman,
Hi, I read your coverage of the voter issues with interest. Greg Palast too has made a BBC Newsnight documentary on this.
I am surely missing something here. Perhaps You might be kind enough to explain why this is relevant. I wrote the following letter to Mr. Greg Palast, and I reproduce it below instead of duplicating its content for you.
This is a serious question because “¦ I’d like to understand the relevance of this voter fraud [issue], when both parties are already criminally engaged in the [even] bigger heist of America in a fully bipartisan and cooperative way. Perhaps you can explain why anyone with a brain should even participate in this puppetshow designed for the entertainment of the sheeples mainstream masses.
Instead of educating them on how both parties, and both candidates, represent the same ruling interests, and how America [itself] has been hijacked [such that all overarching policies for destroying the nation-state of the United States and ushering in world-government will continue unabated regardless of who occupies the White House], you seem to be contributing to the emotional brouhaha of the puppetshow to drum up interest as the drum-beaters for ‘noora-kushti’. That [word], in my native language, means both teams work for the same promoters, and are putting on a show for the benefit of the public in a fixed-match.
[The match is predominantly fixed not by election rigging, but by the pre-selection of willing participants ““ just like in WWF wrestling. In electrical engineering, we call this pre-setting the ‘Most Significant Bits’ which largely determine the outcome of any subsequent computation.]
But since you are surely far more knowledgeable about this [matter as you continue to focus on the bipartisan allegations of possible election theft, and not on the blatant in-your-face bipartisan theft of the entire nation which now makes these election processes entirely irrelevant ““ and if there was any room for doubt in the matter, it was surely eliminated by the bipartisan Congressional passage of the monstrous Wall Street bailout Bill which both parties and their respective presidential candidate endorsed], it must be only yours truly who is missing something.
Thank you.
Zahir Ebrahim
Project Humanbeingsfirst.org
Letter to Greg Palast/BBC Newsnight Appended
http://humanbeingsfirst.blogspo...t-of-2008.html
Nice try on the spin Brad but using your own words — B U S T E D ! —
The charge is not that they are perpetrating VOTER fraud (as the election is not yet held, thus no voters) but that they are perpetrating voter REGISTRATION fraud which could lead to fraud.
Many states take a long time to purge election records so it is possible for people to vote over and over again at old addresses. I also know of a way to vote at least twice in different areas because I see the potential for abuse where I work. If it happens or not I can’t prove but I have my suspicions.
If Democrats continue to cheat in elections, it will eventually destroy them as a party when it gets out and is proven. Remember that in Milwaukee a few years back 7,000 more votes than people LIVE in the city were counted. How could that be Brad? Hum????
Its guys like Brad and Joe the bogus plummer who have this country messed up and will sell out for a blow pop. They think only about themselves, I am a union electrician IBEW # 716 Houston, card #A141204, i say if they want to build it over seas let them sell it over seas. What corporations want to do is move your job to China and pay 15 cents per day wages, build you car there then ship it back to America without paying import tarrifs. The health care companies are now doing the same thing. Why pay our Doctors 6 figures when they can get a doctor from India and pay this guy 40 grand a year to do what ever the administrator tell them to do. Who wants a minimum wage doctor? So go ahead guys keep your head in the ground in the name of God, racism, the fact of the matter is corporations have been pimping you and your ignorant parents for generatons. Its called divide and conquor, all the way to the bank!
THE REPUBLICANS AND KARL ROVE HAVE DONE IT AGAIN.
INSTEAD OF EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT THE REAL VOTER FRAUD WITH THE BOGUS MACHINES, THE REPUBLICANS HAVE MANAGED TO GET THE MAJORITY OF THE NEWS MEDIA TO REPORT THIS BOGUS NON STORY. IT GOES TO SHOW YOU THAT NO MAJOR NEWS OUTLETS ARE DOING HARD INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING ANYMORE. (ALTHOUGH THIS WOULD NOT TAKE HARD INVESTIGATING) THEY ALL JUST PARROT EACH OTHER. THIS IS REALLY PITIFULL AND DISCOURAGING. IF IT WEREN’T FOR THE BLOGS AND CABLE CHANNELS LIKE MSNBC WE WOULD HAVE NO CLEAR VISION OF THE TRUTH. KEEP IT UP BRAD.
Brad, before much longer, you will have the benefit a publicly exposed bona-fide conspiracy- to-commit-voter-fraud as a reference for your ongoing investigation…
Consider that the concerted and illegal efforts of Republicans to cage voters, was safe for them to get away with until November 2006.
Their arrogant, unrestricted use of caging, which you yourself have shown is illegal by most state and federal standards, could only be perpetuated without the enforcement of those laws.
Now consider the RICO laws; from the Wiki;
“The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (commonly referred to as RICO Act or RICO) is a United States federal law that provides for extended penalties for criminal acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. It also provides a civil cause of action for those injured by violations of the act.”
Lets not get too deep into the civil issue, every disenfranchised voter would be a legitimate victim, but that isn’t my point. Consider the first part, which essentially extends guilt to conspirators who may not have been perpetrators of the actual crime.
Now, ponder the extended line of highly connected McCain campaign perps and Rove-connected wingnut rank and file who could be quite justifiably included in that legal lassoe, (Sampson, Goodling, Von Spassky, Griffin, Rove, etc. ad infinitum) the implications are startling.
If voter caging, with the intent of blocking legitimate voters, is a crime, then the list of guilty accomplices from the past 8 years who conspired to facilitate that crime is pretty easy to trace, and that intent easy to prove.
Simply ask; Cui Bono from fewer low-income and blue-collar voters?
Until the majority swung so hard against them in 2006, the Republican Party was the sole beneficiary of this voter fraud. By institutionally disenfranchising (which is a massive crime that requires a vast conspiracy of entrenched lawmakers) low-income and typically Democratic voters in micro-selected demographics like Ohio in 2004, they could push a closely divided public to the right of it’s real center fulcrum.
And because they were in control of the Executive Branch, they agreeably ignored the clearly criminal caging committed by their own operatives, which in essence makes the Executive Branch co-conspirators in the crime of felony voter obstruction, and subject to the RICO laws installed in our legal code.
Had they abandoned their mischief this time around, they might have put some legal distance between themselves and their culpability. But this current vote-supression redux is one more bit of hubris, and exposes the entire house of cards to fresh scrutiny by the 111th Congress and their Commander in Chief.
Brad, your work has been instrumental in exposing the weak underbelly of this vote-suppresssion beast, you have revealed the very basic fact that they can not stand up to public scrutiny. Shine a light on their profanity, and they run for cover.
It’s my guess there’s an octopus in the middle of this RICO case. Just trace the still-active voter-caging strategists and perps back to their most powerfully connected roots. Anyone want to bet the scent of that old Texas Turdblossom, and the cowpie it rises from, stinks at the center of it all.
Don’t let up. Keep after em’. You have slain a mythical anti-democracy dragon, that is not so mythical after all.
If the pen is mightier than the sword, the what’s your keyboard worth?
Brad,
We’re up against a propaganda machine that Hitler would’ve been envious of. It is major league. It takes the breath away!
The only reason its defenders don’t seek the truth is because they don’t want truth. They want victory, no matter how it’s acheived.
I see no reason to believe they won’t use their infernal machines to cook this election, also. Why on Earth is proprietary source code not against the law? What kind of show are we putting on in this country?
I’m looking forward with trepidation to seeing how often Obama leads in exit polls, then loses the State.
America, land of the free.
My sister in Ohio writes:
“They have indicted most of the Acorn people here.
They have subpeonaed voters who registered more than 100 times each. Each time with a different address.
They said they were pressured by Acorn even after they told them they already were registered voters.
This caused voiding of the people who actually lived at those addresses.
There have been more than 10,000 registrations thrown out since the investigation.
It is a BIG issue here.”
I want to know what the truth is about this in Cleveland, Ohio!
Why aren’t you commenting about this?
What most of the nation did not hear was the fact that there were at least 20 thousand suspect votes during the early election here in one county alone, Pitt County, North Carolina! Nothing further was said, and these known for a fact suspect vote made it through the ballots and into regisration. These were made known because of voters were going to vote and finding they couldn’t because they had supposedly ”
Already voted!” Therefore they could not vote for who they wanted. Shockingly, Obama/Biden, Governor Elect Bev Purdue, and Senate Elect Kay Hagan, (all Liberal Democrates) won by only 20 thousand votes here in North Carolina? So did the people of North Carolina really vote for these people? I guess with the suppression of the voter fraud, us North Carolinians will never know.