The ACORN I know from Baltimore is a home ownership org.  They have trained people in the facts of home ownership and have helped many people I know personally get homes.  What is often overlooked in the booming housing market is the fact that rents goes shyward too.  For many who are renting saving for a home becomes increasingly harder as you have to save for this house while renting and sometimes the rent is higher than the mortgage would be.  ACORN went into churches and schools to do home ownership outreach.  They trained people to help them understand the process and to get them up to speed on what it means to own a home.  The ACORN I know has helped a lot of people buy homes and not get taken advantage of.  I know of at least one couple who was going to buy a home using an ARM and ended up with a FHA after talking to an ACORN rep.  ACORN advocates affordable homes and helps homeowners thnk about their budgets and all of the other things that can come up.  They tell you upfront that ARMs, ballons, interest only are not smart loan choices and give you the reasons. 

Do I doubt the account of voter fruad no.  When you hire teenagers and send them walking house to house things happen.  I know because I did voter registrtion in '88. The true mistake in this is paying by the number you register, when you do that some college kid or even a deperate adult is going to go to the phone book or the library.  Here is the thing.  These fruadulant people are not going to show up on election day.  This is much to ado about nothing.  How many people are really going to show up with fake IDs to vote? Because in every state I have lived in you have to have an ID to go with your card or you can't vote.  55% of the adult population is not even registered to vote.  You think there is going to be some concerted effort to vote fraudulantly?  There may be one or two isolated incidents but a huge effort?  In order for that to happen you have to get a fake ID and remember all the names and addresses that you filled out on the form and then pick different times as a precint rep is surely likely to remeber you about the 3rd time.  That's either conspiracy theory or  gulibility.   

Michelle

I blog at http://www.mommycan.blogspot.com/

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)

This link below has many, many articles about ACORN.

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6968

Obama & ACORN - Grants

The Chicago ACORN Received Grants Of $45,000 (2000), $30,000 (2001), $45,000 (2001), $30,000 (2002), And $40,000 (2002) From The Woods Fund. (Donors Forum Website, ifs.donorsforum.org, Accessed 6/10/08)

NOTE: From 1993 To 2002, Barack Obama Served On The Board Of Directors For The Woods Fund. (Tim Novak and Fran Spielman, “Obama Helped Ex-Boss Get $1 Mil. From Charity,” Chicago Sun-Times, 11/29/07)

Obama & ACORN - ACORN Endorsement

ACORN’s Political Action Committee Endorsed Obama. “[A]CORN's political action committee endorsed Barack Obama for President. … The endorsement reflects a belief that Obama – who worked as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago – understands that change must come from the ground-up, as part of a working coalition, rather than from position papers.” (Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Op-Ed, “ACORN: Obama Gets It,” The Nation, 2/23/08)

Obama & ACORN - Community Organizing

Obama Formerly Represented ACORN, Taught Classes For Future Leaders Of ACORN, And They Endorsed His 2008 Presidential Campaign:

Obama Directed Project Vote And Later Taught Classes For “Future Leaders Identified By ACORN And The Centers For New Horizons.” “He [Obama] says he is drawn to politics, despite its superficialities, as a means to advance his real passion and calling: community organization. … In 1992 Obama took time off to direct Project Vote, the most successful grass-roots voter-registration campaign in recent city history. Credited with helping elect Carol Moseley-Braun to the U.S. Senate, the registration drive, aimed primarily at African-Americans, added an estimated 125,000 voters to the voter rolls--even more than were registered during Harold Washington's mayoral campaigns. ‘It's a power thing,’ said the brochures and radio commercials. … Obama continues his organizing work largely through classes for future leaders identified by ACORN and the Centers for New Horizons on the south side.” (Hank De Zutter, Op-Ed, “What Makes Obama Run?” Chicago Reader, 12/8/95)

Obama & ACORN - Legal Work

Obama Was Part Of Team Of Lawyers Who Represented ACORN In A Suit Against The State Of Illinois. “Obama was part of a team of attorneys who represented the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois in 1995 for failing to implement a federal law designed to make it easier for the poor and others to register as voters.” (Mike Robinson, “Obama Got Start In Civil Rights Practice,” The Associated Press, 2/20/07)

Obama & ACORN - Campaign Money

Obama’s Campaign Paid Over $800,000 To ACORN Subsidiary, CSI, For Get-Out-The-Vote Efforts, But “Mistakenly Misrepresented” Their Work To The FEC:

Obama’s Campaign “Paid More Than $800,000” To ACORN For Get-Out-The Vote Efforts; The Campaign Originally “Misrepresented” The Group’s Work To The FEC.  “U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an offshoot of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now for services the Democrat's campaign says it mistakenly misrepresented in federal reports.  An Obama spokesman said Federal Election Commission reports would be amended to show Citizens Services Inc. -- a subsidiary of ACORN -- worked in ‘get-out-the-vote’ projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in FEC finance reports filed during the primary.” (David M. Brown, “Obama To Amend Report On $800,000 In Spending,” Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 8/22/08)

http://www.gop.com/ObamaAcornTree/

It will impact the election because Obama's campaign paid ACORN to "get the vote out" and ACORN was subsequently charged with fraudulent registration. Voter fraud is a federal offense and the question has to be asked, how deeply is Obama's campaign involved in this fraud?

The answer to that can have a serious impact on the campaign.

Jane Becker, http://thedamedomain.blogspot.com

Ladies, whether or not those "Mickey Mouse" voters show up at the polls with or without ID, there is a presidential candidate who is deeply associated with an organization accused of  voter registration fraud, and that's a very big issue, esp. since his campiagn paid them to get those "voters" registered. 

That's the fact.

Or would it only be a fact if it were a Republican candidate who was involved? Speaking as a Democrat, I remember all the allegations of voter fraud against the Republicans in Ohio in 2004. It was wrong there, and it's wrong here.

Here is a pic of John McCain at an ACORN rally:

If interested read the other side of the story here:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/13/acorn-mccain-and-gop-used_n_134284.html

They can't be that bad.  Like I said smoke and mirrors.  We have got to start thinking BEFORE we jump on a bandwagon.  THis is an organization that has done much good in communities all accross the country.  Republicans have used it when it benefited them now they are throwing it under the bus to go on the attack.  The only problem is tearing apart ACORN's reputation will have lasting and very negative affects on the people it serves.

Michelle

I blog at http://www.mommycan.blogspot.com/

How many verified cases of election fraud have stemmed from  voter registration fraud? There must be stats for this among law enforcement. I would guess that of the many hundreds of election fraud cases that are prosecuted, 99% result from other tactics ranging from ballot manipulation, voter suppression, sabotage, etc.

If a presidential candidate has worked with and for, given money to and promised a role in his administration to a publicly funded group that is accused of fraud.  Esp. when that group and the candidate each took a lot of money from a company that was a major player in the sub-prime mortgage meltdown.

Whether the candidate in question is a Democratic or Republican,  this is a VERY serious issue which raises significant questions about the character of the candidate involved.

Do you see any ethical issues about a non-for-profit organization supported by taxpayers endorsing one candiate over another one?

Has nothing to do with anything. But why are people who use it called racist? Why doesn't he come out and say, yes this is my middle name, what of it? Why has he allowed people to be called racist for using it--thereby impugning Arabs everywhere?  It's his god-given name as they used to say.  Why doesn't he defend it and thus eliminate the Arab argument?

Voting for a man just because he is half black is no indication of "America's advancement".  Voting for a man or woman, regardless or ethnicity or religion, is. 

As to Obama's tax plan, I watched his dialogue in Ohio with a plumber.  He's definitely raising taxes and he said so.

Jane Becker

Returning to the discussion on ACORN, I'm disappointed to see the same tired, old argument brought up again and again about ACORN. This is an organization that works for worker's rights, in support of Unions, equal opportunity for education, and yes, get out the vote campaigns.

Every Presidential election, some Republican in my state in Missouri comes out whining about ACORN and fradulent voter registrations. And every four years a couple of ACORN workers get busted, turned in by ACORN, and convicted of using the phone book to make it easier to fill in cards. 

Every four years, ACORN registers several thousand Missourians -- 53,000 this year. And ever year, about 100-200 of these registrations are found to be duplicates or frauds, almost invariably flagged that way by ACORN directly. As far as I know there has not been one fraudulent vote cast because of ACORNS work. 

Not one.

Every four years, I think of the same thing: why is it that the Republicans do not want people to be registered to vote. After all, I would think that both parties would want everyone to vote. Then I look at the voting identification campaigns and so on here and realize that the Republicans are trying to keep out the poor, and the black. Since the party can't win fairly, it will take whatever win it can get, even to denying entire groups the right to vote.

If you all want to talk about the true crime here, trying to prevent legitimate voters from voting is the worst possible crime associated with each election.

My own take on this issue: http://realtech.burningbird.net/not-technology/politics/support-acorn

First, the thing about ACORN getting 20% of anything related to the bailout is just an out-and-out lie. The money was supposed to go to the National Housing Trust Fund, which supports affordable housing. This money is only available to non-profit housing developers, of which ACORN is not one. ANd it is only available as part of a competitive grant process, not as an Congressional earmark.

Of course, ACORN itself does NOT seek nor accept federal grants anyway, so the point is moot.

 Second, you can find out the real deal from the horse's mouth here: http://acorn.org/index.php?id=17851 

I checked and did find a few instances of voter fraud. The New York Times did a broader overview:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html

Bottom line, most of the "fraud" was confusion, such as felons not being aware that they can't vote. Personally, once a felon has paid their debt to society, I think they should be allowed to vote, but that's beside the point.

The vote buying schemes seem to be related to small, local races. 

As for the fraudulent votes there doesn't seem to be any ties between ACORNs effort and the fraudulent votes. 

Certainly there's been no grand conspiracy to steal the elections because of voter fraud. However, "stealing the election" because of not allowing legitimate voters the right to vote is just as much a danger -- or do we forget Florida 8 years ago?

I've been watching this post build on ACORN and voter fraud charges and smears against Barack Obama build, and have been reluctant to comment for a variety of reasons. However, in support of the information from ShellyP, I submit the following links that show this issue is an old story tied to Republican attempts to disenfranchise voters and to smear ACORN's work with fighting for the working poor and the poor who can't find work.

The Republican War on Voting by Art Levine

Threats to Jail Black Voters

The Fraudulent Voter Squad story at Slate Magazine

The Truth About Voter Fraud from The Brennan Center for Justice

An Interview with David Iglesias, one of the attorneys fired by the DOJ b/c he would not follow its politicized agenda, in particular, to prosecute ACORN

More on US Attorney Firings, for anyone who needs history

Missouri Attorney A Focus in Firings, The Boston Globe

Phony Fraud Charges, NYT editorial

Republicans and Voter Caging

The GOP's ACORN Voter Fraud Canard (from BradBlog. He leans left but his facts are correct)

ACORN has been working on its quality control

I included this last link because what's really going on with the accusations against ACORN is that the Republican party is going after the weakest link, a group that hires temporary workers in impoverished areas to help people fill out their voter registration cards and encourages low-income citizens to speak up and vote. It's inevitable that errors will be made in a large-scale voter registration drive, and it's a McCain spin doctor's joy to twist these errors into bogus charges of voter fraud.

As others have said in this thread, it's unlikely Mickey Mouse is going to show up to vote even if a voter registration worker, in an attempt to get paid for work he/she didn't do, turns in Mickey's card.

Regarding Amy Titleman at ACORN having to answer an ambush phone call, she misspoke. ACORN did not endorse Obama. The ACORN political action committee endorsed him. But she was correct to tell the caller that voter registration was over. BTW, ACORN can't register voters. It may only help voters to register by approaching them and asking them to fill out the voter registration form. Board of Election offices register voters.

Get Out the Vote or GOTV is not voter registration, and it really doesn't matter whether ACORN's PAC supports Obama or not. All ACORN workers can do is try to get people to go to the polls and exercise their right to vote. It can educate voters on issues important to ACORN. They can't go in the booth with able-bodied citizens and vote with them. Neither does ACORN have the power to commit election fraud, which by the way is not the same as voter fraud. (Election fraud is the crime of attempting to swing an election and generally is committed from the back end, not the front end of helping people to register to vote.) Also, an organization cannot commit voter fraud, which is one of the reasons ACORN has not been convicted of voter fraud ever, that and because no ACORN member or staff person has ever instructed anyone to fill out a false voter registration form.

Actually genuine voter fraud is an individual impersonating an actual voter and attempting to vote in that person's name. Republicans have written and enacted legislation to redefine voter fraud as a crime including the filling out a voter registration form with false information, the result of which has been to prosecute little old ladies who help their friends fill out voter registration forms and in this case, to go after temporary workers for large-scale voter registration drives in an effort to smear the organization that employs them.

To transform questionable voter registration forms into live people voting by impersonating others would take an effort far beyond the capacity of any community organization. (For one, the organization would have to set up thousands of physical addresses to receive the Board of Election voter registration cards that resulted from the forms. These groups don't have those kinds of resources.)

In low-income communities, which are ACORN service areas, getting people to impersonate voters ain't gonna happen. It's an uphill battle to get people to fill out their registration forms at all and to show up and vote legitimately in their own names much less anyone else's. The people who want to vote in their own names in such communities are far more likely to have trouble getting to the polls than anything else, but if these legitimate voters make it to the polls, Republicans have challenges for that too.

Also, ACORN and other community organizations lack the power of mind control to motivate people to vote under an alias. I'm shocked by the seemingly educated people who believe this form of mass mobilization would be possible.

Perhaps Republicans believe mass mind control during elections is possible because they believe in the power of people like Rush Limbaugh and his "Operation Chaos." Or maybe it's simply Republicans getting dirty because they recognize that disenfranchised minorities and people in low-to-moderate -income communities won't vote Republican anyway.

When voters from low-income and minority communities become engaged and realize their votes count, they will vote, and when most vote the one vote to which each is entitled, is it any wonder they don't vote for Republicans? What has the Republican party consistently done to show that it's concerned about people in poverty? Not much intentionally. That's why Republicans want to shut down low-income communities that wake up and vote. They know those votes are unlikely to favor Republican candidates, and emails from their operatives back up my thinking on this.

The questionable voter registration cards from ACORN are just that, cards filled out questionably by a few temporary workers who wanted to con their employer, ACORN, and be paid for registering voters when they actually didn't get out on the streets and help to register anyone. ACORN fires these employees when they identify them through quality control, and it cooperates with prosecutors who want to prosecute the workers.

When all is said and done, when you look at the numbers of
people ACORN has helped to register, a laudable effort, you'll find that the error rate for problematic cards is consistent with other large voter registration operations, some of which are run by government agencies. You will also find that Republicans call almost anything voter fraud, even bad handwriting. Republicans are scared that ACORN's success at getting more people from low-and-moderate-income communities to register to vote will result in these citizens exercising their right to vote. Smearing Obama is more icing on the cake.

On a final note, I watched the video to which Jane linked that she believes shows Obama saying ACORN will play a "major" role in his administration. He did not say that. He said that community organizations will have a voice in determining his policies. More than one community organization was present. There's nothing new about his saying that. Obama believes the working poor and the poor who have trouble working as well as the organizations that help them have been left out these last eight years. He's right.

I think Obama should be commended for having seen the need for poor, underrepresented Americans to have equal opportunity and an equal voice in this nation and having the heart to do something about it. He did that early in his career and not specifically with ACORN. Republicans openly laughed at him for being a community organizer, which tells you what they think about working to help hard working families and also what they really think of fighting for voting rights.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I admit that I used to work for ACORN, and it is also in the spirit of full disclosure that I tell you that ACORN, while doing an admirable job working to organize low-income people to stand up for their rights, is ill equipped to swing any election and that any questionable voter registration cards are more evidence of a need to tighten up on quality control than anything sinister. The accusation that ACORN has the power to commit massive election fraud is the best joke here. The group is good at moving people not paper, which is why that organization has had to work hard to develop quality control procedures for voter registration efforts. Community activism is at ACORN's heart not administration skills. And that's the truth I could not have shouted while in its employ.

Post Script: Republican Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, said today that voter fraud accusations in his state are most likely exaggerated.

Nordette is a Contributing Editor with BlogHer.com whose personal blog is hosted on another site at this link.