Where's the real fraud threat?

As is customary in the weeks before the last several elections (2000, 2004, 2006), Republicans are accusing voter registration groups, most notably ACORN, of submitting fraudulent voter registration forms, ostensibly to improperly influence the election, while at the same time the GOP is working overtime to remove thousands of apparently qualified voters from the voting rolls in key battleground states. Which is the real threat?

Let's do some background. ACORN is the most well known of voter registration groups, and they've been targeted heavily by the GOP and by the mainstream media who, as usual, report the talking points without doing much investigative journalism on their own.

Here are a couple of examples. One of the most often used motives detailed by ACORN's opponents is that registration solicitors get paid per registration, so the temptation to throw fake names into the pile in order to earn more money is a primary driver. But, according to ACORN, solicitation staff are paid an hourly rate, so it doesn't matter how many or how few registrations they turn in. I haven't seen that reported much, nor have I seen any documentation provided by accusers to show a pay-per-registration framework.

Accusers also claim that the false registrations lead to voter fraud. Again, not true - registration is the first step toward voting. The ACORN registrations then go through an internal quality control process where incomplete, problematic, or suspicious registrations are flagged by ACORN themselves and reported to the appropriate law enforcement and/or election personnel.

In all of the states in which ACORN works, the law requires that all voter registrations that are collected must be submitted, so ACORN does that, again with the questionable registrations flagged. I would think people would have a larger problem if ACORN was found to not turn in every registration form collected, but apparently people would rather complain than expect ACORN to follow the law.

If you recall, not only do you need to be registered to vote, you also need to have that registration verified by your local board of elections, and when you arrive at your designated polling place, there's some sort of identity validation that takes place, whether it's signature comparison, providing identification, or some other form of authentication. So even if someone was trying to register fraudulently, there are a couple of more steps that would need to occur before they could even attempt to vote, so this doesn't seem like a particularly easy or streamlined path to voter fraud.

ACORN registered about 1.3 million new voters in six key states this time around, and 60-70% of these registrations involved low income and minority people. Giving these historically disenfranchised voters an opportunity to participate in one of the most important elections in a generation seems to be a noble act, one that should be rewarded instead of questioned.

Less than 1% of all ACORN registrations appear to be problematic, yet there's a lot more attention being paid by the media to ACORN than there is to Republican efforts to remove tens of thousands of potential voters from the rolls in generally Democratic districts in key states. Why do you think this is happening?

Could it be that it's not likely that these minority and low income voters that make up a huge portion of new voter registrations will be voting for GOP candidates, and therefore they present a threat to the existing power structure?

Perhaps the GOP tactics in the last decade or so are now known and people are watching for them. Like voter caging. Or the improper purging of people from voter rolls if they happened to share the same name as a felon who was ineligible to vote, Or distributing leaflets and messages in minority neighborhoods warning that police would be at polling sites enforcing court warrants, collecting unpaid child support payments, or arresting people who were behind in their rent. There have even been reports of people driving through minority neighborhoods and sitting at polling stations in black SUVs and vans with door insignia very similar to government agencies, all on election day. Sounds a lot like voter intimidation to me.

Does ACORN have a problem with it's paid staff turning in false or repeated registrations? It sure looks like it. Does ACORN have systems and processes in place to identify and report these questionable registrations to the appropriate authorities. It appears that they do. Do these authorities independently investigate and handle the flagged registrations that ACORN provides? It doesn't look like they do that very well, so the onus is on them for that, not ACORN.

Does the GOP have a long and documented history of voter suppression? Yes, they do. Are they looking for new and better ways to stack the election deck in their favor. It sure seems that way. Are they afraid GOP control may end. It absolutely will.