Scaling the Mountains and Molehills of the "Voter Registration Fraud" Controversy

October 17, 2008

by Erin Ferns and Michael McDunnah

With a constant barrage of allegations against ACORN and other voter registration organizations coming from the McCain-Palin campaign and the Republican National Committee in recent weeks, it’s worthwhile to take a look back at this ongoing war between partisan forces on the right and community based voter registration drives—a war that has largely been fought in the media and nowhere else, and which has threatened to drown out real issues in these crucial weeks before the election.

October 15, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC – In response to “accusations” by the Republican National Committee that voter registration drives in Milwaukee had employed former felons to help collect voter registration applications, Project Vote today sent a letter to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board seeking clarification of apparently conflicting legal guidelines regarding whether former felons are in fact allowed to help register voters.

October 13, 2008

The economic crisis now looms as the most important issue in the upcoming election, but there are concerns that partisan forces may be afraid to hear what those hit hardest by the downturn have to say at the polls. Recent reports in several states have indicated that partisan operatives are considering challenging the right to vote of Americans who have lost, or are at risk of losing, their homes to foreclosure.

Today the voting rights group Project Vote sent letters to both major political parties in 10 states—AZ, CO, FL, GA, MO, NC, NM, NV, PA, and VA—urging them to "oppose and refrain from" using lists of home foreclosures as the basis for "voter caging" operations.

October 10, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC – On Friday Project Vote and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) held a news conference to discuss the importance of voter registration and to respond to partisan allegations of fraudulent registrations.

According to Brian Kettenring, the Head Organizer of Florida ACORN and a national spokesperson for the organization, the joint registration program operated in 21 states, employed over 13,000 paid workers, and cost approximately $18 million. Helping to register over 1.3 million Americans, the 2008 nonpartisan drive might be the largest and most successful effort to register low-income and minority citizens in U.S. history, Kettenring said.