Is Voter Fraud a Problem? You Betcha!

But maybe not in the way you think.

You see, I don’t think there are people out there just itching to vote multiple times to swing the election.  And I think that if they are, they’ll have a hard time doing it.  The systems and laws we have in place actually work.  Salon’s Andrew Burmon recently interviewed Lori Minnite, an expert on voter fraud from Barnard College, and she says that “From 2002 to 2005 only one person was found guilty of registration fraud. Twenty people were found guilty of voting while ineligible and five people were found guilty of voting more than once. That’s 26 criminal voters — voters who vote twice, impersonate other people, vote without being a resident — the voters that Republicans warn about.”

So what’s all this about ACORN submitting fraudulent registrations?

It’s true.  ACORN even admitted to it. They knew about it before the registrations were submitted.  State or county laws often require organizations who are registering voters to turn in ALL off the registrations they collected, even if they know them to be fraudulent.  ACORN flagged the problem registrations before turning them in.  They were completely honest and upfront about it.

Did ACORN encourage people to submit fraudulent registrations? No.  Not as an organization, anyway.  The problem is greed and lack of work ethic.   According to ACORN, “there have been several times over the past ten months that our Las Vegas Quality Control program has identified a canvasser who appears to have knowingly submitted a fake or duplicate application in order to pad his or her hours.”  It’s about money, not politics.  It’s still not good, but it does not point to an Obama conspiracy to steal the election.

This is the truth.  There is no voter registration fraud problem.  People associated with the McCain-Palin campaign and with the Republican party are stirring up fear, just like they do with the rumors about Obama being a secret Muslim, or when they insist that Obama hangs out with terrorists.

And people believe these things.  And they get angry.  And when people get angry, bad things can happen.

Here’s where I got my information.  Please pass it along.  People need to know the truth.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/15/voter_suppression/index.html

http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=76934

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/10/10289_the_acorn_controversy.html