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The Truth About ACORN's Voter Registration Drive
Submitted by IanJP on Sat, 10/25/2008 - 12:20pm.
Friends,
As most of you are aware, ACORN and our successful efforts to register 1.3 million low and moderate income people has come under fire in recent weeks. These attacks are the result of a small group of political operatives trying to orchestrate hysteria about "voter fraud" and manufacture public outrage that they can then use to justify fraudulently challenging voters at the polls and other schemes to suppress the votes of millions of low- income & minority Americans.
In Pennsylvania, ACORN has registered 140,000 new voters; 85,000 of those in Philadelphia. Despite the recent hype, less than 1.5% of the registration cards we submitted had missing or suspicious information. Our full-time quality control staff called every card we collected and separated out those we could not verify; we then handed them in, in three piles, with a cover sheets labeled “suspicious”, “unverified”, or “verified” (98.5%).
We wanted to tell you this because we value our relationship with you. Despite our best efforts, and a few balanced reports in recent days, we have found it difficult to break through the partisan sound machine that holds multiple press conferences a day spouting misinformation.
We must continue to do our work helping families save their homes, keep their heat on, fix their children’s schools, and find accessible and affordable healthcare. We must also ensure that the 1.3 million we have registered across the country and the millions of other new and not-so-new registrants do not face undue challenges or intimidation when they cast their ballot.
Bad registration cards do not equal bad votes. In fact, there has never been a fraudulent vote cast in this way. The Department of Justice reports that there have been less than 100 attempts at voter impersonation at the polls since its nationwide “crackdown” began in 2002. The instances of voter suppression continue to be all too common.
We urge you to watch this brief video on our work and the various attempts to suppress the vote over the last decade: Brave New Films: The Truth About ACORN.
For a lighter take check out Stephen Colbert’s recent segment on ACORN at: Colbert Report: 10/21
I bumped this back up...
I bumped this back up...
Proof we need to be vigilant.
It has become very clear that there are going to be attempts to suppress the vote nationwide this year. We owe it to ourselves to do everything we can to protect the right of our fellow citizens to vote. I'll be working as a poll watcher this year in the suburbs. Is anyone else going out to work the polls this year?
Don't Forget ACORN also pushed bad housing loans
And don't forget, ACORN has repeatedly pushed and intimidated banks(with threats of discrimination) into giving bad and risky loans to poor people who couldn't possibly pay the loans back.
ACORN therefore helped promote the bad loans which are at the heart of today's economic crisis.
And, while giving poor people a home is a laudable goal, giving them a home they can't afford and forcing bad loans on banks is not.
So ACORN likes to couch itself in this sanctified air but, in reality, it has done great damage to our economy through its pushing of these bad loans.
And it's no accident ACORN's vote registration process is being investigated in approximately 13 states.
And which political party wanted to give ACORN a pork barrel grant in the initial draft of the bailout package?
I'll give you a hint, it wasn't the Republicans.
Really?
Liberty11,
I try not to engage in the the flame war that sometimes honest disagreements devolve into on the internet but cannot let this ridiculous claim stand.
I assume, from your claim, that you believe that the Community Reinvestment Act (passed in 1977) somehow caused this crisis - that appears to be where some people (Rush, Hannity, McCain) are pointing these days.
Forget for a moment that the bill was passed 30 years ago or that it was passed in response to standardized redlining practices that cut huge segments of the population out of any semblance of the American Dream of homeownership.
Even if you forget those two points, remember these two-
1) folks who get loans with help of first-time housing counseling programs (which ACORN Housing is one of many) default at a rate of less than 2.5%. According to the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency default of subprime loans in PA overall is over 20%.
2) less than 20% of subprime loans (and an even smaller % of adjustable rate loans) were originated by CRA governed entities. They were made by independent brokers. This meager % is even after the CRA standards were weakened in 2004 by our enlightened President and equally omniscient Congress (GOP majorities in both houses at the time).
Now on to the claim that ACORN would benefit from the bailout bill. . .
1) ACORN opposed the bill.
2) The language in question would have granted 20% from any realized profit from the purchase of the "toxic assets" for the Federal Housing Trust Fund.
3) The Federal Housing Trust Fund would use that money to create affordable housing, for which there is a sore lack of, including here in Philly.
4) That money is allocated largely to municipalities, and in Philly would have supplemented PHA and some non-profit affordable developers (which ACORN is not).
There is plenty of blame to go around, but you are deluding yourself if you honestly believe poor people/ACORN came up or asked for adjustable rate loans, balloon payments, prepayment penalties, yield-spread premiums (kickbacks to brokers that gave folks loans worse than what they qualified for); or that poor folks came up with the complex derivatives that packaged bits of their loans into securities for purchase on Wall Street.
If you don't believe that but are looking for a scapegoat, then fine I guess you are entitled to be angry, I am too. I am a bit more angry at the folks who made a killing on these loans and then got $700 billion for their trouble when things went sour.
If you believe what some fringe partisan elements tell you then I feel sorry for you. But if you are just spouting this stuff because you want to cast blame from those in power to the powerless, in hopes of helping your candidate/party then it is you, my friend, that is the fraud.
Sign our petition (and donate if you are able) here: http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/2749/t/3071/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=...
ACORN= LOAN SHARKS!
I mean, I know ACORN actively campaigned in Philly against predatory lenders (even with their own little shark toys waving around in City Council hearings), and I know they campaigned against check cashers, payday lenders and others. But, still, clearly the housing crisis is their fault! ACORN is the downfall of America!
Anyway, Ian, my fault. I went through and deleted all of that doofus' ramblings, but it looked like I missed one.
Actually, I'm glad you left it up
So I can copy Ian's response for the next time I hear fraudulent claims about the roots of the subprime crisis. It's good to have a good response framed so concisely.
My hope is that "liberty" will respond next with the bogus "Fannie and Freddie caused the subprime crisis" claim, so I can get copy Ian's response on that lameness also.
I am waiting for the Ackelsberg "associated with ACORN" ads
I wasn't here for those early fights, but have definitely heard the tales.
These rants don't bother me. It is more the regular media folks that accept the 4 RNC press blasts a day on us as facts.
A housing counselor in Philly saves more houses in a day than a certain Senator has in 26 years.