More Hot Air From McCain on Voter Fraud

As I blogged yesterday, John McCain and his Republican allies continue to make a big stink about voter fraud in an attempt to cover-up their own efforts at voter suppression.

The Obama campaign has a huge advantage in the number of new voters registered and the ability to get them to the polls. So naturally the only thing the McCain campaign can do is pretend that these voters are illegitimate and fraudulent.

They've done so in the past. According to a new report by blogger Ari Rabin-Havt, "Nearly a quarter of John McCain's 'Clean Election and Voter Fraud Committee,' chaired by Warren Rudman and John Danforth, have been involved in GOP voter suppression efforts or unfounded partisan claims of voter fraud."

Take a look at the list and remember these names next time the GOP cries wolf about voter fraud and attempts to prevent voters from exercising their most basic constitutional rights.

Comments (22)

1. Well, again...apparently MCCAIN's keynote speech to an ACORN event has been thrown in Winston Smith's 1984 "memory hole" and nobody on the Right remembers us EVER being at war with EurAsia. Doubleplusgood.

   But I think I know what this is really about....

   the GOP see a LANDSLIDE coming in Congress and a victory (at the least) for Obama...

   and they want an EXCUSE for trying to make it "illegitimate" and "not a true indication of how Americans really feel"....it's all "ACORN stealing the election for Obama!!!!!" for the next four years.

   Posted by Maskdelta at 10/15/2008 @ 12:25pm

2. Braveheart Cheney rushed to hospital ...

   Cheney resigns for health reasons ... W appoints XYZ (Lieberman?) ... W, after New Year's & a deluge of pardons, resigns & XYZ pardons W.

   Peace reigns across the nation, the republic is spared further agonies.

   All's well that ends well.

   And enjoy your poison, Barack.

   (The crystal ball runneth over.)

   Posted by sloper at 10/15/2008 @ 12:48pm

3. "John McCain confessed to being a war criminal." this is according to CNN and they never lie and are totally unbiased....palin wants alaska to secede from the union....so how can GOP call themselves "patriots"????

   gee, I wonder why all mccain supporters are foaming at the mouth like rabid dogs at his rallies to the point he has to defend obama against the lies of his own supporters....

   choose wisely....

   Posted by jrs112 at 10/15/2008 @ 1:03pm

4. the truest poll:

   http://www.7-election.com/

   Posted by frosty zoom at 10/15/2008 @ 1:29pm

5. Would someone explain to Sarah Palin and John McCain the difference between voter fraud and voter registration fraud so they can stop looking so stupid. The MSM that they criticize so much is actually helping their cause because they keep calling it "massive voter fraud" when they "report" it. The fact is that the only defrauding going on is being perpetrated against ACORN because they are paying money to workers that turn in all of these fake registrations. ACORN is required by law to turn in all forms and has actually self reported the problem. This is a smoke screen to cover up the real problem of voter purging going on behind the scenes on a massive scale. A lot of valid registered voters are going to show up to vote and will be told that they aren't registered because of this shady practice. Others will be discouraged because there is no way a lot of polling places will be able to handle what is expected to be a record turnout. A shortage of voting machines and poll workers will lead to long lines. It could get ugly on election day.

   Posted by aljstl at 10/15/2008 @ 1:45pm

6. Posted by sloper at 10/15/2008 @ 12:48pm

   A little peyote for breakfast? __________________________________ ALL ..... BBC investigation of this

   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7658182.stm

   Posted by leftofcenter at 10/15/2008 @ 2:05pm

7. This morning, CNN ran a piece on the ACORN "voter fraud," and as I recall, did conflate voter registration fraud with voter fraud.

   The focus of the piece was Philadelphia - a highly Democratic city - in which a Philadelphia official was condemning ACORN for handing in 10,000 (or thereabouts) bad forms. This supposedly included members of ACORN "going through the phone book" to get voters because ACORN employs ex-criminals, the homeless, and others who are so desparate for the pay they get for each new voter, they commit fraud to increase the numbers.

   Having read in The Nation, on Alternet, and on other sites articles refuting the voter fraud allegations, I was sceptical of the report on CNN. However, it does seem as if there has been at least an attempt by some ACORN employees to register fake voters.

   An ACORN official was interviewed, although not very extensively or well, and she said that ACORN itself has identified about 5,000 invalid out of (I believe) 1.3 million forms. That information was mostly ignored and was nearly buried in the rest of the report. My husband, who is very politically leftwing, doesn't use the Internet and seemed to believe the CNN report at face value.

   Anyway, this issue seems insignificant compared to the voter purges, misinformation, and other real efforts by Republican administrations and officials to reduce the Democratic rolls in places like Ohio.

   That story, of course, has not been covered anywhere I recall in the corporate media. Only those of us who browse the Internet for real information or search out alterative publications ever see views opposing the mainstream conventional "wisdom."

   Posted by LeeAnnG at 10/15/2008 @ 2:44pm

8. *** ACORN itself has identified about 5,000 invalid out of (I believe) 1.3 million ***

   Lake County (Indiana) elections officials acknowledged they have found problems and had to reject a large portion of the 5,000 registration forms turned in recently by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, an activist group that conducted registration drives across the county this summer.

   --And--

   A retired Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice says that she is "not confident we can get a fair election" in the state come November.

   Justice Sandra Newman, accompanied by Dauphin County District Attorney Edward Marsico and Pennsylvania Republican State Chairman Robert Gleason, expressed her concerns at a Harrisburg press conference this morning. A thick document replete with photo copies of phony registrations and aerial shots of vacant lots used as "addresses" for "voters" was handed out to journalists.

   Gleason was even more explicit.

   "Between March 23rd and October 1st, various groups, including ACORN, submitted over 252,595 registrations to the Philadelphia County Election Board" with 57, 435 rejected for faulty information. "Most of these registrations were submitted by ACORN, and rejected due to fake social security numbers, incorrect dates of birth, clearly fraudulent signatures, addresses that do not exist, and duplicate registrations. In one case, a man was registered to vote more than 15 times since the Primary election."

   Posted by JimAK at 10/15/2008 @ 3:55pm

9. Posted by Maskdelta at 10/15/2008 @ 12:25pm | ignore this person | warn this person

   "lets see...we cheated and stole two elections...since everybody is just as iniquitous as us...and god knows we'd be pissed off enough to cheat back...they must be cheating too!!!"

   ah projection!!!!

   Posted by dexter666 at 10/15/2008 @ 3:58pm

10. A real smear job Ari. But then that's what the left does best.

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 10/15/2008 @ 2:51pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    awwww...

    you cons are soooo sensitive!

    Posted by dexter666 at 10/15/2008 @ 4:00pm

11. you cons are soooo sensitive! Posted by dexter666 at 10/15/2008 @ 4:00pm

    He's not sensitive he's unintelligent and divisive. He is thought for.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/15/2008 @ 4:10pm

12. Posted by dexter666 at 10/15/2008 @ 3:58pm

    But see, what's both ironic and HI-larious...

    is that these are the SAME conservatives who put down Dem/lib complaints about 2000 and 2004 as "whiney liberals who can't admit it when they lose an election, so they make up phoney excuses!"

    Honest-to-gosh, I've seen a right-wing blogger say "If Obama wins, put it down to too many dumb, ignorant people in this country!"...

    the IDENTICAL charge the Right used to make against the Left of "Liberal elites who think America is stupid for not supporting them!"

    The Right....has become the thing they used to mock!

    Posted by Maskdelta at 10/15/2008 @ 4:18pm

13. The telling thing about this ACORN stuff is anytime a Republican is asked for some sort of verification of his allegation, he seems to fall back on what he heard or what he believes. Well, I believe in unicorns and martians, so I guess that means they exist.

    Yesterday I sent a donation to ACORN and got five people to do the same. Today, seven. They seem happy as hell to be in the news, and McCain can't legitimately bring it up at the debate because of his speech two years ago. Beautiful.

    Posted by onthehelm at 10/15/2008 @ 4:41pm

14. Its great that the GOP is playing this whole guilt by association game. If that is the case McCain is even more dangerous that Obama is. Lets see McCain was in office when the Iran-Contra affair happened, he was also very involved in the Keating 5 and also he has people on his staff that have lobbied in Russia, so does that mean McCain is in bed with Putin? I believe that if McCain wants to play with a loaded gun he should make sure that the safety is on.

    The thing with this voter registration nonsense is that it is another supposed guilt by association game, lets like Obama with as much crap as possible and see what happens.

    Posted by jloughry1976 at 10/15/2008 @ 4:43pm

15. Posted by jloughry1976 at 10/15/2008 @ 4:43pm

    Maybe Obama should come back tonight with "Senator McCain, what about YOUR 'ties' and 'associations' with...George W. Bush?!?!?"

    LOL

    Posted by Maskdelta at 10/15/2008 @ 4:51pm

16. The Right....has become the thing they used to mock!

    Posted by Maskdelta at 10/15/2008 @ 4:18pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    reminds me of the kid in little league who ran around bragging about how awesome he was, who mocked me and talked a big game...

    until i popped a grand slam home run off him and won the game - at which point he started crying like a baby!!!

    lol - what a satisfying moment!!!

    Posted by dexter666 at 10/15/2008 @ 6:59pm

17. Montana GOP Official Out After Failed Bid To Challenge Voters By Zachary Roth - October 15, 2008, 1:00PM Sometimes there's justice in the world.

    Earlier this month, Montana Republicans decided to challenge thousands of voters in predominantly Democratic areas, based on discrepancies in their addresses.

    The GOP hastily withdrew the challenge after it sparked an outcry.

    But now, the party's executive director has resigned, just three weeks before the election.

    No one's saying on the record that Adam Eaton's departure is a result of the challenge fiasco. But the Missoulian reports: "Last week, rumors were running rampant in political circles that Eaton would be pushed out because of the much-criticized effort to challenge voter registrations."

    The challenges appeared to win the party no friends in the state. After it was revealed that among the challenged voters was a member of the Army Reserve about to deploy to Kuwait, and an 86-year old Second World War hero, even some local Republicans denounced the gambit.

    Democrats in the state had gone to court to block the challenges. The Republicans withdrew them before a ruling was made, but not before the judge issued an order charging: "The timing of these challenges is so transparent that it defies common sense to believe the purpose is anything but political chicanery."

    Posted by Lillian at 10/15/2008 @ 7:41pm

18. Maybe I'm going to sound all Rese and shit, but it seems quite plausible that ACORN may have been infiltrated by Rove's minions and that the so-called 'fraudulent' registrations were fraudlently prepared.

    That is to say that the right wingers saw what was happening - Obama registering millions - and decided that enough was enough and sought to discredit ACORN by falsifying registrations and then crying foul.

    Perhaps a little whacked, but when we are talking about 10k or so registrations in a couple of potentially key states (PA, possibly IN), it does have a sexy appeal to it, I'm thinking.

    Whatever the case may be, the whiners on the right are losing it - and likely the election - before our very eyes. Sad, really.

    Posted by skeletonman at 10/15/2008 @ 8:08pm

19. reminds me of the kid in little league who ran around bragging about how awesome he was, who mocked me and talked a big game... until i popped a grand slam home run off him and won the game - at which point he started crying like a baby!!! Posted by dexter666 at 10/15/2008 @ 6:59pm

    Sounds like Eric Cartman

    Posted by A_Pax_On_Your_Houses at 10/15/2008 @ 8:41pm

20. Elections have been fraudulent since the first election.

    If McCain didn't want to run against a few thousand double/triple voters he shouldn't have entered the race.

    Voter fraud is an oxymoron.

    Posted by bleedingheart at 10/15/2008 @ 11:59pm

21. someone needs to make the distinction between voter fraud and voter registration fraud. Acorn is the one who was defrauded by people turning in fraudulent registration cards. I listened to a CNN reporter who is an idiot really.

    Posted by lachatte at 10/16/2008 @ 12:33pm

22. Acorn has been registering people by the truck load and the republicans are trying to illegitimize the voters. I was alarmed when I watched John McCain come out and say that they were commiting outright fraud. It seems as if they are really ramping up their efforts to purge voters.

    Greg Palast and RFK jr. are two leading figures against voter fraud. Palast is a BBC investigative reporter and has a few books on how the republicans steal votes. There's also a book from a former GOP'er who did jail time for voter fraud. His book is called; How to rig an election.

    Posted by Gainsbourg69 at 10/16/2008 @ 1:51pm