ACORN Response to Senator McCain's Smear Ad

[Purveyor]

ACORN President Maude Hurd released the following statement today in response to the McCain campaign's new ad claiming that, among other things, ACORN is responsible for the mortgage crisis:

"For almost a decade, ACORN, a community organization of 400,000 families in neighborhoods across the country, has been fighting against the predatory lending practices that have robbed our members of their homes, destabilized neighborhoods, and roiled the global economy.

"In his newest ad, John McCain's campaign bizarrely claims, 'ACORN forced banks to issue risky home loans, the same types of loans that caused the financial crisis we're in today.' Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, ACORN has worked successfully to help working class families get good home loans on fair terms from legitimate banks and has fought vigorously against predatory lenders who have ripped off families in our communities. These predatory loans caused the crisis.

"For more than a decade, ACORN members have held protests, released reports, and advocated for regulations to protect homeowners from predatory lenders. ACORN organizers and volunteers have been working day and night to help victims of the GOP economic meltdown to save their homes from foreclosure. In fact, ACORN has brought class action lawsuits against several predatory lenders, and has lobbied the Federal Reserve and Congress in support of regulations against predatory lending. ACORN has even been successful in convincing many lenders to treat homeowners more fairly and help families be able to make their mortgage payments and save their homes.

"Unfortunately, the Bush administration and Congressional Republicans like John McCain have blocked the sensible regulations that ACORN and others proposed that would have averted the mortgage meltdown. If John McCain thinks that community organizers caused the foreclosure crisis, he knows even less about the economy than previously thought.

"John McCain and the Republicans are desperately trying to shift the blame for the economic crisis they caused with a philosophy of deregulation and indifference to homeowners. All the grainy footage and creepy music in the world can't cancel out some simple, basic facts, and the facts about the economy are not on John McCain's side."

ACORN.ORG: http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12439&tx_ttnews=22382&tx_ttnews=12387&cHash=4507a6d2a0

[Roland99]

1. Bravo, ACORN for fighting back and fighting back quickly!

[Indi Guy]

2. A crossreference to your point...

Posted in this thread -- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4225474

The Truth About ACORN's Voter Registration Drive

COURTESY OF MARC AMBINDER - THE ATLANTIC

To: Interested Parties
From: Bertha Lewis and Steve Kest
Date: October 9, 2008
Re: The Truth About ACORN's Voter Registration Drive

Election Day is less than a month away, and our efforts to make sure that low-income and minority voters have a voice and vote on November 4th are in full swing. Unfortunately, just as we've seen in previous election cycles, the more success we have in empowering these voters, the more attacks we have to fend off from partisan forces making unfounded accusations to disparage our work and help maintain the status quo of an unbalanced electorate. We want to take this opportunity to separate the facts of our successes from the falsehoods of our attackers.

On Monday, October 6, as voter registration deadlines passed in most states, ACORN completed the largest, most successful nonpartisan voter registration drive in history. In partnership with the nonpartisan organization Project Vote, we helped register over 1.3 million low-income, minority, and young voters in a total of 21 states. Highlights of this success include:

We collected over 151,000 registrations in Florida, 153,000 in Pennsylvania, 215,000 in Michigan, and nearly 250,000 in Ohio.

An estimated 60-70 percent of our applicants are people of color.

At least HALF of all are registrations are from young people between 18-29.

We are proud of this unprecedented success, and grateful to everyone who supported us in this massive effort, from our funders and partners to the literally thousands of hardworking individuals across the country who dedicated themselves to the cause and conducted the difficult work of registering 1.3 million Americans, one voter at a time.

And this work is far from over: now begins our effort mobilize these new voters around local and national issues, getting them to the polls and helping to channel their commitment and conviction into an ongoing movement for change in our communities.

As The Nation pointed out recently, ACORN's success in registering millions of low-income and minority voters has made it "something of a right-wing bogeyman." Though ACORN believes that the right to vote is not, and should never be, a partisan issue, attacks from groups threatened by our historic success continue to come, motivated by partisan politics and often perpetuated by the media without full investigation of the facts. As a result, there have been a few recent stories about investigations of former ACORN workers for turning in incomplete, erroneous, or fraudulent voter registration applications. Predictably, partisan forces have tried to use these isolated incidents to incite fear of the "bogeyman" of "widespread voter fraud." But we want to take this opportunity to set the record straight and tell you a few facts to show how these incidents really exemplify everything that ACORN is doing right:

Fact: ACORN has implemented the most sophisticated quality-control system in the voter engagement field, but in almost every state we are required to turn in ALL completed applications, even the ones we know to be problematic.

Fact: ACORN flags incomplete, problem, or suspicious cards when we turn them in, but these warnings are often ignored by election officials. Often these same officials then come back weeks or months later and accuse us of deliberately turning in phony cards.

Fact: Our canvassers are paid by the hour, not by the card, so there is NO incentive for them to falsify cards. ACORN has a zero-tolerance policy for deliberately falsifying registrations, and in the relatively rare cases where our internal quality controls have identified this happening we have fired the workers involved and turned them in to election officials and law-enforcement.

Fact: No charges have ever been brought against ACORN itself. Convictions against individual former ACORN workers have been accomplished with our full cooperation, using the evidence obtained through our quality control and verification processes.

Fact: Voter fraud by individuals is extremely rare, and incredibly difficult. There has never been a single proven case of anyone, anywhere, casting an illegal vote as a result of a phony voter registration. Even if someone wanted to influence the election this way, it would not work.

Fact: Most election officials have recognized ACORN's good work and praised our quality control systems. Even in the cities where election officials have complained about ACORN, the applications in question represent less than 1% of the thousands and thousands of registrations ACORN has collected.

Fact: Our accusers not only fail to provide any evidence, they fail to suggest a motive: there is virtually no chance anyone would be able to vote fraudulently, so there is no reason to deliberately submit phony registrations. ACORN is committed to ensuring that the greatest possible numbers of people are registered and allowed to vote, so there is also NO incentive to "disrupt the system" with phony cards.

Fact: Similar accusations were made, and attacks launched, against ACORN and other voter registration organizations in 2004 and 2006. These attacks were not only groundless, they have since been exposed as part of the U.S. Attorney-gate scandal and revealed to be part of a systematic partisan agenda of voter suppression.

These are the facts, and the truth is that a relatively small group of political operatives are trying to orchestrate hysteria about "voter fraud" and manufacture public outrage that they can use to further suppress the votes of millions of low-income and minority Americans.

These tactics are nothing new, and history has shown that they will come to nothing. We'll continue to weather the storm, as we've done for years, and we'll continue to share the truth about our work and express pride about our accomplishments.
Most importantly, we want to assure you that this good work continues, unabated and undeterred. ACORN will not be intimidated, we will not be provoked, and in this important moment in history we will not allow anyone to distract us from these vital efforts to empower our constituencies and our communities to speak for themselves. If the partisan political machines are afraid of low-income and minority voters, they're going to have to do a lot better than coming after ACORN.

After all, there are now at least 1.3 million more of them, and they will not be silenced. They're taking an interest, and taking a stand, and they'll be taking their concerns to the voting booth in November.

And ACORN will be here, to make sure that the voices of these Americans are heard, on Election Day and for every day to come.

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/10/acorn_rallies_its_troops.php

[sonias]

3. I support ACORN and I vote

And I also explain everything I can to people who just don't understand that ACORN is just the favorite whipping non-profit of the Reich wing. Wingers can't stand it when poor people vote.

This whole Nevada raid and excessive voter fraud hype just before and election is the same shit they pulled in 2004. The repukes are just crying wolf again. But this time we're not listening.

Bravo ACORN for all the hard work you do in our communities!
:applause:

Sonia

[bertman]

4. I support ACORN too and I, too, vote. But I'm furious that the corporate media have taken

ACORN to task and we hear nary a peep about election theft via the voting machines.

This whole ACORN voter fraud bullshit is designed to make the Independents think that the ultra-liberals are trying to steal the vote, when it's exactly the opposite that is happening-the ultra-conservatives are the ones who are doing it with their damned election officials and their proprietary voting machines.

Come on, Dems. Where are the ads talking about election fraud by the Republicans. This needs sunlight.

[MJJP21]

5. But

But who is hearing the reponse from ACORN? Unless the media picks up on it there won't be any change in belief by those that think ACORN is guilty of the false claims against it.

[KharmaTrain]

6. Part Of The Corporate Media Narrative

The media "picks up" on what they think serves their purposes...thus ACORN could scream and yell and if they didn't say what fits the narrative, few will hear them. As always, the right wing needs a scapegoat...this isn't a new trick, just a new strawman. In past elections they've always claimed that Democrats were padding electoral roles with "illegals" or some other scheme despite the fact it's never been proven. ACORN has ZERO to do with which people can or can't vote...all they do is voter registration and its up to the various jurisdictions to determine if those registrations are valid...and also, let's see how many Jimmy Johns and Homer Simpsons show up to vote on election day and, if they do, it's not ACORN who gave them the ballot. One year I worked as a pollwatcher...at the end of the night, we went through the write-ins and in this precinct, Mickey Mouse and Archie Bunker got a bunch of votes. Nothing new under the sun.

The GOOP needs a scapegoat for what's happening to them and ACORN is on their radar for various reasons...voter registration is just one. They want to destroy the organization's reputation while trying to save "face" as their asses get handed to them. If they can create some aura of "fraud", this gives the blowhards and hypocrites who remain in that corrupt party a "justification" as to why they lost and who to blame.

It's up to individuals to blast through the filter...if you hear people ask questions...be ready to answer them or give them links that will help them get those answers. I just hope the Obama campaign plays it smart and stays above this noise...let Gramps shadow box with this latest of many distractions.

Cheers...