"vote fraud is...a catchall for groups seeking to place greater restrictions on voting access"

[ProSense]

Community Organizing Group Said To Be Under FBI Scrutiny

The nonprofit organization that helps register low-income people to vote is apparently being investigated by the FBI over allegations that it has improperly registered voters, Josh Marhall at Talking Points Memo reports. According to TPM, the FBI is investigating whether ACORN “helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election.” Marshall writes that politicians have been “aggressively lobbying” the Department of Justice to investigate ACORN and that leaking word of the FBI investigation “most likely violates DOJ guidelines about DOJ/FBI actions which can end up interfering with or manipulating an election.”

Politicians and their supporters frequently complain, especially during presidential elections, about “vote fraud.” Election experts, however, argue that vote fraud is extremely rare and is often a tactic used to limit the ability of citizens to vote. During a recent panel discussion hosted by ACS and the American University Washington College of Law, several voting rights specialists challenged the notion that widespread vote fraud exists. Video of that panel discussion is here.

'Vote Fraud' Gaining Steam, Causing Confusion

Repeated claims that massive “vote fraud” is likely to befall many states this election season are producing scores of concerned voters. According to the Detroit Free Press 4,000 election monitors will likely be present at certain polling places across the state this year, as they were in 2004. But the newspaper reports that actual incidents of vote fraud have been rare. Election officials in places such as Detroit and Southfield, where scores of monitors showed up in 2004, said legitimate challenges of voters hardly occurred. Southfield Clerk Nancy Banks said she has worked closely with monitors. “And I’ve always told them, if they intimidate the voter or cause disruption in the precincts or create any type of uncomfortable situation, we will call the police.”

The Free Press notes a “persistent rumor” about the Michigan Republican Party using home foreclosure lists to challenge voters as not casting ballots in the proper precincts. In September, the Michigan Messenger reported Macomb County Republican Party Chairman James Carabelli as saying, “We have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses.” Since then Crabelli has denied making the statement and filed a defamation lawsuit against the Messenger. The independent newspaper’s president is standing by the reporting. Chris Thomas, Michigan’s election director, told the Free Press that foreclosure lists, alone, would not provide a monitor with sufficient evidence to challenge a voter’s eligibility.

During a recent panel discussion hosted by ACS and the American University Washington College of Law, Kristen Clark of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund said vote fraud is typically a catchall for groups seeking to place greater restrictions on voting access. She added that voter intimidation and suppression are actually alive and well in this election season.

(emphasis added)

Yet it's amazing how GOP spin can become fact, as in the entire ACORN BS.

[Overseas]

1. As much as the corporate media consolidated into Republican hands would like you to believe

the lies the RNC is pushing about ACORN, there may be a large enough core of people that know the Republicans are engaging in much more significant attempts to manipulate elections.

www.stealingamericathemovie.com "Stealing America: Vote by Vote" has a comprehensive overview of Republican election manipulation techniques, from old fashioned ones like misdirecting and intimidating voters to the more modern electronic fraud.

[ProSense]

2. Thanks for the link.

It would help if voter intimidation and vote suppression got as much coverage as the GOP's ridiculous voter fraud claim.