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Obama camp blames politics while GOP says voting system is at risk
By Greg Gordon
McClatchy Newspapers
Published on Saturday, Oct 18, 2008
WASHINGTON: The furor over the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now's national voter registration drive exploded with new controversies Friday, including a call by Barack Obama for an independent prosecutor and the disclosure of a death threat against an ACORN worker in Cleveland.
What remains unclear is whether the presidential campaigns of Democrat Obama and Republican John McCain will reach a truce over voter access to the polls by Election Day or whether their legal and rhetorical battles will persist to the finish line — or beyond.
Republicans allege that ACORN is engaged in rampant voter registration fraud, but they've offered no proof of such a systematic effort. The GOP does have evidence that some of the group's 13,000 canvassers submitted fraudulent applications, but ACORN says it alerted authorities to most of the phony forms.
Democrats counter that the GOP is trying to whip up fears of voter fraud so it can knock students and poor minorities off the voter rolls to enhance McCain's chances of victory.
Tensions began to escalate Thursday with disclosures that the FBI is investigating ACORN and the possibility that it is engaged in a vote-fraud scheme.
On Friday, Obama's legal counsel, Robert Bauer, wrote Attorney General Michael Mukasey, charging that the inquiry is politically motivated and that it risks repeating the 2007 scandal over the Bush administration's politicization of the Justice Department.
Bauer asked Mukasey to broaden a special prosecutor's investigation to examine the origin of the ACORN inquiry.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment, except to say: ''We will review the letter.''
Earlier Friday, ACORN said that one of its senior staffers in Cleveland had received a death threat and that its Boston and Seattle offices had been vandalized sometime Thursday, reflecting the mounting tension over the group's role in registering 1.3 million mostly poor and minority Americans to vote.
ACORN attorneys drafted a letter alerting the FBI and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to the incidents, said Brian Kettenring, a Florida spokesman for the group.
Kettenring said that the senior ACORN staffer in Cleveland, after appearing on television this week, got an e-mail that said she ''is going to have her life ended.'' A female staffer in Providence, R.I., got a threatening call from someone who said words to the effect of, ''We know you get off work at 9,'' then uttered racial epithets, he said.
Vandals also broke into the group's Boston and Seattle offices and stole computers, Kettenring said.
McCain's claims of fraud
The incidents came the day after McCain charged in the final presidential debate that ACORN's voter-registration drive ''may be perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history'' and may be ''destroying the fabric of democracy.''
McCain's comments provoked a response from ACORN.
''I would not say that Senator McCain is inciting violence,'' Kettenring said, ''but I would say that his statements about the role of this manufactured scandal were totally outlandish.''
Kettenring said the debate comments seemed to have tipped the atmosphere ''to a scary point, where raising allegations of voter fraud went from a cynical campaign ploy to really inciting racial violence.'' He called on McCain ''to tamp down the fringe elements in his party.''
Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, meanwhile, kept up the Republican ticket's attack on the group. Campaigning outside Cincinnati, the Alaska governor said Obama hasn't been forthcoming about his ties to ACORN.
Obama has said he doesn't have any significant links to the group.
''You deserve to know,'' Palin told supporters. ''This group needs to learn that you here in Ohio won't let them turn the Buckeye State into the Acorn State.''
McCain's invitation
Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, didn't directly address the threats, but said he sent a letter inviting Obama campaign manager David Plouffe to join an Honest and Open Election Committee ''to ensure that there is a total confidence level in the American public for these elections.''
''We believe that these are important historical elections and nothing should mar the outcome, regardless of whether we win or lose,'' he said.
Since McCain's remarks, ACORN's 87 offices across the country have received hundreds of hostile e-mails, many of them containing racial slurs, Kettenring said.
The e-mail to the Cleveland employee was traced to a Facebook Web page in the name of a Baltimore man. It featured a photo of a McCain-Palin sign.
Kettenring said that the bulk of the e-mails had been either ''flat-out racist'' or had racial overtones. Most of the group's 400 members and about 80 percent of the 13,000 voter-registration canvassers are black or Latino.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON: The furor over the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now's national voter registration drive exploded with new controversies Friday, including a call by Barack Obama for an independent prosecutor and the disclosure of a death threat against an ACORN worker in Cleveland.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 01:40 AM, 10/18/2008
Yes the GOP is saying that because they are afraid they will lose.
McCain keeps repeating the same lies. But remember just because you say the same thing a thousand times it does NOT make them true.
McCain needs a little more integrity, he would get more respect.
Posted 05:10 AM, 10/18/2008
I'm from Memphis and a huge Buckeye sports fan and it upsets me that the blogs are now calling them Ohio State Acorns.
akron, oh
Posted 06:22 AM, 10/18/2008
If you are too lazy or indiffernt to register to vote on your own and then show up with the proper ID, then chances are you are too stupid to know how to make an informed decision. Or even complete the ballot for that matter.
Tallmadge, OH
Posted 06:56 AM, 10/18/2008
The Repuke-icans are losing this election and their current attempt at crying voter fraud and saying ACORN cheats will fail. Obama is the next president of the USA and he will bring lots of democrats at the state and national level with him. The end is near for Bush and his Neo-Con Repuke-icans 8 years of rule.
Posted 08:01 AM, 10/18/2008
The fuss about ACORN is a political stunt by the GOP and Mccain camp. What are we really talking about ? 1.3 MILLION registrations were turned in by ACORN of which 1 % is fraudulent. When I say fraudulent this does NOT mean a single person actually voted that shouldn't have. As a person who has registered people to vote as I do working for the board of elections I know these applications will be not accepted. The board of elections only allows ONE vote per person no matter how many applications are sent in. Any person who knowingly registers a faulty application of course should be fired. However the bigger story here which is not told is many people will never be able to vote because they are not registered because of overly strict rules which are designed to not favor poor people or people that are handicapped and renting. A single returned piece of mail should not be a reliable basis for challenging the right to vote but it is . One must not allow themselves be turned away from voting if you know you are registered. ! Everyone has a right to contest. Also I should add why was Mccain supporting ACORN in 2006 when he sat at their rally if he felt they were so dishonest.? ACORN is a non profit group that advocates for low income housing .
Anti-Politically Correct & Anti-GOP, OH
Posted 08:09 AM, 10/18/2008
All I see is just a bunch of politcal mud-slinging. That's all. McCain is mad because Obama is getting the best of him so he hasto come up with something to go after and make the news.
Posted 09:02 AM, 10/18/2008
ACORN is as crooked as a dogs hind leg. The Democrats try to pull a stunt like this every 4 years by trying to get the "loser" vote. On election day you'll be p.o'd again because Obama isn't going to win.
Anti-Politically Correct & Anti-GOP, OH
Posted 09:39 AM, 10/18/2008
OBAMA '08!
Posted 12:35 PM, 10/18/2008
Wow! The republicant's sure know their radical, paranoid, racist base, don't they? Man, these people REALLY scare easy, and luckily for the GOP, their supporters don't have enough presence of mind to realize that not only are all these "scary" accusations against Obama and ACORN over the top ridiculous, but as Viv noted above, fake registrations don't translate into fake votes. Voter suppression however, is something the GOP DOES excel at. See Ken Blackwell in 2004....
Just another fake fear tactic to get the racist, unthinking base all scared and riled up. William Ayres is a piker compared to the radical right's fear mongering.
By the way all you scared McPain supporters, do you actually KNOW who/what "The Manchurian Candidate" is, and where the phrase came from? Or do you just mindlessly repeat what lush/hammity tell you?
You might want to look it up. It may just surprise you to know that it sounds more like YOUR guy.
Front Line, KC
Posted 12:49 PM, 10/18/2008
"Obama has said he doesn't have any significant links to the group."
Obama trained the group. This is a fact. They are just following his lead. It is typical Chicago politics. Change you can believe? Change from freedom and the American Dream to Socialism. That you can count on.
Socialism must be defeated. We must fight now for our freedom. Continue the fight for the American Dream. No Obama, No to Socialism.
Front Line, KC
Posted 12:54 PM, 10/18/2008
"k" - "fake registrations don't translate into fake votes" You can't be serious? Voter suppression? You mean not allowing people to vote more then once, not allowing felons to vote from jail, not allowing dead people to continue to vote? This is the Socialist party way. Obama has taught his brown shirts well.
No to Obama, no to socialism. We must keep up the fight, even for those that can not see. The patriots of 1775 were underdogs and defeated the enemy, we must do the same.
Posted 01:58 PM, 10/18/2008
Well of course if caught they clain its a lie. Like little children they say he did it not me.
The Dems here lie so much that it is hard for anyone to believe them, except the naive and bleeding hearts.
73 times a worker registered a 17 year old to vote as 19.
Multiple records of people like Shoin Ough or Dixie BellforOBa, Tiswana Fellitgood, that have address to nowhere and phone numbers to Police stations, restraunts, drugstores etc.
There is no voter fraud in Ohio, Just ask Jennifer Brunner who first rejected the early voter format of Blackwells and then gave us Acorns version.
Good by Jennifer we do not need your type anymore in Ohio.
Posted 02:09 PM, 10/18/2008
Listen to who is calling names here Dems, not the Republicans, just Dems.
Your fear is so strong it fills the air like fresh meat to a hungry preditor. But the media has made this their war also against the GOP.
Everyone hated the current administration so much they are blinded, or indifferent to the truth.
k you wrote "Wow! The republicant's sure know their radical, paranoid, racist base, don't they?'
Not scared k, just not stupid as you appear to be.
A crime is a crime and if you agree with stuffing the ballot boxes with fraudulent voters ballots then your anti Freedom and love Slavery.
Because that is what Obama and the DNC preach. Spread the working class wealth around not theirs or their over $250K a year friends.
If any one of you believe that only 5% of Americans make $250K a year. It is no wonder your unemployed or working at Micky Ds.
Posted 03:24 PM, 10/18/2008
The worst thing for our economy now would be to elect Barack Obama with Pelosi speaker of the the House and Reid in the senate, the democrats will control the entire government!
Do NOT believe Obama will lower taxes. Congress will never let him do it! Remember Reverend Wright said he would "say anything to win an election."
There will be no way to save money again, every business will face exorbitant tax rates, you will pay inheritance and capital gains taxes. Businesses will hire no new people. A LOT of "small" business are over $250,000 - grocery stores, car washes, restaurants, private schools andeven plumbers if they own the company!
They will censor the Internet, and end talk radio. They will take your 401K and put it into the government social security system. This economy will crumble - no investment, no new jobs, no savings, no one spending money. Its a nightmare.
Please read this Wall Street Journal article first:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122420205889842989.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
Posted 05:35 PM, 10/18/2008
Hey Paul, your predictions sort of sound like.....right now! Businesses aren't hiring new people right now, small businesses are going under all over the place, and I'm sorry, but no one is going to let them take away freedom of speech. Not even those who vote for Obama will stand for that.
There's no way to save money now, and most people will never have to pay inheritance or cap gains taxes.
Will Obama save the country? No. Neither will McCain. Our presidents aren't supposed to do that anyway-they don't run the economy, or create the tax law! Sooooo many people are paranoid of what they think and Obama administration will do to the nation, but all they have to do is read the Constitution. It's worked for over 200 years now, how on earth would one man who happens to have a crappy middle name and is part African in heritage be able to undo all that?
Don't believe the fear, folks. Think for yourselves!
Posted 06:59 PM, 10/18/2008
The laws of libel and slander should apply to politicians. McCain and Palin have viciously lied and smeared.
Posted 07:04 PM, 10/18/2008
wouldn't it be horrible to have a Democrat President and Congress? We might bring our soldiers home from Iraq, we might have affordable health care and a decent educational system. The billionaires might have to share a little of their wealth to create opportunity. We might shut down Guantanamo, or balance the budget, respect the constitution and the Geneva Convention rules.
How hideous!
Posted 07:48 PM, 10/18/2008
Posted by Jewel 03:59 PM, 10/18/2008
The laws of libel and slander should apply to politicians. McCain and Palin have viciously lied and smeared.
AND OBAMA HASN'T?????? GIVE ME A BREAK
Posted 10:49 PM, 10/18/2008
Obama hahahahahaha he is a total joke. I love how fearful the liberals are who are posting here. Don't believe the lies, Don;t believe the lies, wawawawawawawaw just like Al Gore 8 years ago. You are trying to cheat liberals and the Republicans are letting people know it.
