Let me preface this post by saying that I still believe 100% in Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts. The more informed voters we have out there considering the issues and casting their votes, the better off we are. We, as a country, may make mistakes now and again, but hopefully we learn from them and move on more the wiser. But there is one group – specifically the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN – who just seems to keep showing up in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Case in point: In Indiana, the Marion County (Indianapolis) area seems to have managed the
astonishing task of registering 105% of its eligible residents to vote.
So we have 644,197 people eligible to be registered in Marion County/Indianapolis, and 677,401 people registered. Congratulations go to Indianapolis for having 105% of its residents registered!
Or how about registering a 7 year old girl to vote in Connecticut? Or one man in Cleveland who was registered to vote three times in a single day using two different home addresses? Perhaps you prefer the story of a convicted felon in Milwaukee registering not only himself to vote, but registering others as well? (No matter your take on felon voting restrictions, it’s currently illegal in Wisconsin and ACORN should know that.)
There are only so many of these tales that we can read before concluding that – at least in some of their chapters – there is more going on here than simply a helpful group of citizens trying to encourage maximum participation in the electoral process. There is also the fact that in each of these instances, the benefactor of the alleged abuses seems to be the Democratic Party. Here’s a news flash for you, ACORN… your candidates are already doing fine in the polls. If you try to rig the game any further in your favor, you diminish the credibility of the ticket and call the validity of any victory you may achieve into question. Not to mention that such activities, if true, are illegal and, frankly, disgusting.
In the past I’ve been reluctant to point fingers at this group, since I’ve long found the dismal turnout rate during our elections to be depressing. Getting more people to the polls is an admirable goal. But election tampering and voter fraud are far more depressing. ACORN has earned themselves a much closer look by authorities, in my opinion, and the sooner the better.