It is normal for campaigns to pay organizations to register and mobilize voters. Both Republicans and Democrats have done this for years. In a campaign that is costing hundreds of millions of dollars, spending $800,000 on a voter registration drive is not in the least bit shocking.
Obama was affiliated with Acorn about 15 years ago in Chicago. Acorn has done excellent work in America, helping to bring disenfranchised poor voters into their legal rights as citizens. We all have the right to vote. Some of us (historically blacks, women and ethnic minorities) have been barred from voting by prejudice. Acorn exists to recitfy these wrongs, and to help people claim their rights as citizens.
It happens to be true that most poor and disadvantaged voters tend to vote Democrat. The Democrats have reached out to this voting block with great success. It's kind of hard for Republicans to say to poor blacks "Vote for us!" when the GOP has so consistently fostered racism in American politics, in ways ranging from blocking civil rights legislation to Rush Limbaugh, et al.
As for allegations of registration fraud at Acorn, it may be true that there are a few specific cases where over-zealous individuals abused the integrity of the Acorn mission. But one bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch, and a few inaccurate registrations can not cancel out the altruistic work that Acorn has done for decades. Even more important, Acorn is required by law to submit ALL voter registrations it receives. This law exists to prevent voter registrations groups from dumping registrations of people they object to -- for instance, a GOP registration drive is required to turn in the registrations of everyone, including Democrats who sign up at their table. Sometimes people fill out fake registrations, using names like Donald Duck or giving the planet Mars as their address. For this reason, every registration drive will end up turning in forms that are counted as fraudulent by the elections board. Acorn, like every other voter registration organization, has a percentage of forms that are invalid and labeled "fraudulent". This does not mean that Acorn is committing fraud. But the smear mongers and conspiracy theorists go crazy.
Furthermore, you need to think your way through some of these reports. For instance, the report that the same name and address was registered 72 times. What would this mean for the election? Absolutely nothing, because when you go to vote you show up with your ID, and they mark you off as having already voted. You can not then vote again. And have you considered the fact that Karl Rove operative might have purposely turned in these false registrations, knowing that Acorn was bound by law to give all of them to the Elections Board? Oh, yeah, it might have been a set up. Kind of like the John Kerry Swift Boating.
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