Last night's edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs This Week featured another dispatch from Drew Griffin on the controversy surrounding voter registration forms submitted by ACORN in Lake County, IN. And as he did in his report last Thursday, Griffin omits two crucial bits of information:
1) according to ACORN, they are required by Indiana law to submit all registration forms they receive, and 2) before submitting those problematic forms, the organization itself flagged them as incomplete or "suspicious."
Unlike Griffin's previous report, he uses the correct terminology -- "voter registration fraud" -- to describe what appears to have happened in Lake County. Dobbs' producers, however, don't seem to have gotten the memo. Throughout the segment, the chryon reads that ACORN is accused of "election fraud," and at one point Dobbs says, "How can there be any doubt about what's at work here?" -- suggesting that there's some broader conspiracy afoot. Watch it:
Notice how at the outset, Griffin reports that "every single one" of the first 2,100 applications were found to be "fraudulent" by the board of elections staff. He goes on to say that the remaining 2,900 forms have been set aside for the time being.
Now, read this bit of reporting from Adam's post on Friday:
According to Regina Harris, the Director of Registrations for Lake County, this claim checks out. "It's certainly true. They [ACORN] did have three batches separated." she told me this morning. "There was a pile they knew were good, there was some they said had missing info -- like no voter ID number or a missing birthday -- and another batch they called 'suspicious.' "
Gee, I wonder if the Lake Co. staff started processing the ACORN forms by going through the pile identified by the organization itself as "suspicious." That would certainly explain why "every single one" was found to be problematic.
Of course, a viewer could never figure that out because Griffin never informs them that ACORN delivered the forms in three batches.
Let's be clear: 2,100 bad registrations out of 5,000 total is embarassing and I know for a fact that ACORN headquarters is extremely unhappy with the situation in Lake County. That being said, with a nationwide voter registration drive, these types of problems are going to occur. From a recent ACORN press release:
In order to help 1.3 million people register to vote, we hired more than 13,000 registration assistance workers [nationwide]. As with any business or agency that operates at this scale, there are always some people who want to get paid without really doing the job, or who aim to defraud their employer.
This is about individual employees taking advantage of their employer. In doing so, they broke the law and greatly inconvenienced elections officials. But it's not part of some grand plan by the organization to steal the election.
Comments
UnPoliticallyCorrect2008 (not verified) on Mon, 10/13/2008 - 10:24
Are you seriously attempting to say that just because these fraudlant forms have not YET resulted in voter fraud that we should dismiss the actions committed by these employees?
Let us look at it this way-If you were to walk into a store and become injured by an employee whom was NOT performing his/her job properly, would you then sue the store, the employee or possibly both?
You mean to tell me you would NOT find the store, in this case ACORN, wrong for the action its employee committed?
PLEASE........ACORN has been found guilty of this MANY times and was told by the state of Washington as part of their agreement when ACORN had to pay $25,000 in fines for their actions, that they would be monitored to ensure this does not take place again.
You know, I would get if this took place in only one county, or even one state, but MULTIPLE counties and in MULTIPLE states, coincidently the states Obama needs to win in order to win the election----
I guess the $800,000 he gave ACORN is paying off----huh?
Josh Kalven on Mon, 10/13/2008 - 10:55
UnPoliticallyCorrect:
Clearly, the ACORN operation in Lake Co. and elsewhere needs to find better workers. There's no disputing that.
But if the organization were really trying to steal the election for Obama -- as you seem to be suggesting -- why would they themselves flag the problematic forms brought in by their canvassers?
If they wanted to use the faulty registrations to commit voter fraud on Election Day, wouldn't they just mix them in with the good ones?
UnPoliticallyCorrect2008 (not verified) on Mon, 10/13/2008 - 11:49
The problem is that they are NOT flagging ALL of the problems and there are MANY counties stating this.
The problem is that there are states whom do not require a picture ID to vote or like in OHIO, where there are not checks-and-balances to what Brunner is doing with the registrations that ACORN submitted.
It is not necessarily a matter of whether or not they are Stealing the election, but rather their responsibility as to what their employees are doing. This is why one should NOT be paid to solicit voters......especially when one candidate is giving the program $800,000 to do just that and then these solicitors are not even remaining neutral, they are either telling citizens (or non citizens for that matter) to voter or Obama or are wearing Obama attire/vote buttons.
Look, there should be TWO other candidates running that are either more qualifies or whom actually have the balls to stand up for what they believe in......
No matter how one tries to dress it up, put makeup on, camouflage it, it is what it is.......registration fraud and I seem to recall that even that is against the law, at least in most states. If not, does FORGERY ring bells?
I am an Independent that has yet to be swayed by either one, but understand why I am not particulary please with Obama, is lack of experience, his dirty politics in Illinois and his record of hanging around sleezy friends.......So here is where I am coming from........
Ayers + Rev. Wright + (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) + ACORN + Giving $800,000 to ACORN for what appears to commit fraud + Farrakhan + Rezko + Raines + Khali Al-Mansour + Communist Frank Marshall Davis + Rashi Khalidi + Refusal to show full length vault copy of Birth Certificate + Refusal to prove he is no longer an Indonesian Citizen + Refusal to show college transcripts to prove he actually graduate from college denoting his grades + Refusal to show thesis (which is something America will not appreciate from what I hear) =
= Corruption, deceitful, and liar with obvious criminality ties and/or behaviors.
Look, it does not take a rocket scientist to put all of that together and come up with and even more corrupt Washington and failed US economy should Obama become president.
We can dismiss one "coincidence" he was friends with a bad person, possibly even two, but seriously....there is NO DENYING the above information....and I am sure there is more corruption where all of that came from!!!
Therefore, when all of this corruption is taking place within ACORN, Obama gave them $800,000 and his shady friends as well as his shady politics-can you understand WHY one believe he may just be behind this?
Purl Gurl (not verified) on Mon, 10/13/2008 - 12:24
Any of you note Obama has changed the wording on his "Fight The Smears" web page? Obama is in a rush to cover his butt. In essence, Obama has admitted his lying to America about ACORN. There are many news reports available on this for readers to independently verify.
Obama is buying this election, actually, Obama is stealing this election through his paying ACORN to engage in voter fraud. My vote for McCain is stolen away by Obama. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have been victimized by Obama stealing away their votes for McCain.
Obama knew, beforehand, ACORN has a very long history of voter fraud, a history of prior convictions, history of current ongoing voter fraud. Nonetheless, Obama hired ACORN to steal votes for him. This is not a good reflection on Obama's character nor his honesty.
Quite laughable all these Obamabots engaging in deep denial of Obama being a crooked politician.
This is certain, McCain has not and never would consider engaging in voter fraud.
Yes, Obama is running the dirtiest campaign of history, perhaps the most criminal campaign of history.
All hail the Black Messiah!
Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation
Madeline Talbott (not verified) on Mon, 10/13/2008 - 18:25
My friends...
...as one of the candidates who is not my friend tends to open with...
In fact, ACORN will probably not be charged with any crime because they didn't do anything wrong. If you want to register enough low income voters to give poor people a real chance to vote, you have to take some risks that some folks will register twice or more and some will manufacture some extra registrations because it is easier to do that than go out in the hot sun or rain and sign them up for real.
If you don't want poor people to register and vote, you will do what Karl Rove does: get Fox News to scream bloody murder, not to mention Lou Dobbs and the NY Post, all bastions of some kind of something, but surely not journalism.
Karl Rove ordered Alberto Gonzalez, our erstwhile Attorney General in 2006, to fire U.S. Attorneys who would not bring charges against ACORN for voter fraud. Some were courageous and refused, like Iglesias in New Mexico. Others did so, like the new U.S. Attorney Rove (I mean, Gonzalez) appointed in Missouri, but then the charges were dismissed. Because there was no election fraud there.
But let me tell you who I am. I am the infamous Madeline Talbott, community organizer. According to the New York Post, I brought down the entire U.S. economy. According to John McCain's latest ads, I knew Barack Obama. And if that is not bad enough, check out the following:
http://madelinetalbott.wordpress.com
If you want to know who is this nefarious Madeline Talbott, try:
www.madelinetalbott.com
Or try the organization she works for, Action Now at:
www.actionnow.org
BBLESSED (not verified) on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 16:58
You would think the Bishops know who is Lord of all and what the Bible says about helping others..instead of listening to a poor report by Drew Griffin Lou Dobbs who are very biased when reporting about ACORN.It has been brought to the attention of CNN of the GOP voter fraud which is worse than voter registration fraud which ACORN has its checks and balances.Sure you have a few bad apples who are not honest and want to make more money so they turn in bogus registration forms. The number of people they register by legitimate and made up names in which the ACORN organization are required to turn in with three piles good, bad and suspicious...and for Drew Griffin not to know this really makes me question his motives..Drew Griffin, why don't you let us know about the voter fruad intimidations, suppressions and purging of the voter lists 90 days before the elections which purges good registered voters...I would like to know about that and what is being done to prevent it happening in 2012! But I know you will never report on something as important as that and may involve some pretty high polititions that are linked to CNN. The ACORN organization work with well meaning people who genuinly beleive in what they are doing, trying to get both republicans and democrates registered to vote. They are not only minorities, but people of all colors and backgrounds trying to work and make a little money..sure they are bad apples in all organizations but that doesn't mean that the organization is not well meaning. Now with Drew Griffins poor journaliusm and trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill reporting ,the Catholic Church ,one of the contributors, are not supporting them any more...I quess Drew Griffin ,Lou Dobbs and the GOP are intimidated by this small organization and all the new voters they were able to get registered. The GOP are guilty of producing more provisional ballots used which are generally not counted and investigations suppose to happen months after but I doupt they do...It would be nice to know some answers to these questions but like I said Something that lerks fraudulent behavior Drew will steer away from even more so when it is the GOP which need to be investigated. We need a real investigative team to give us trustworthy real journalism and a real trustworthy truth sqad otherwise just turn them OFF.....
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