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ACORN vs Payday Lenders - A Study In Media Bias
Submitted by Paul on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 1:36pm.
Did you hear the one about ACORN having submitted hundreds of thousands of registrations in Ohio and in a number of large counties, 50 percent or more were found to be invalid?
No?
Of course not, because it's NOT TRUE.
However, it IS TRUE about the effort to get Issue 5 on the ballot this year. Issue 5 is the one where Payday Lenders are trying to overturn the law passed earlier this year to limit interest rates to 28% APR.
Read this section of a story from September about efforts to collect signatures for Issue 5:
The group, Ohioans for Financial Freedom, turned in about 422,000 signatures at the end of August, but a number of large counties are reporting that 50 percent or more of those names are being tossed out as invalid.
I think it's clear we've read stories about other petition drives in this state over the last couple years with similar "problems" if not quite reaching 50%.
Where was the major outcry about fraud, etc and all of the breast beating in the right wing media about this? I certainly don't remember any of it.
The point is that petition initiative signature gathering uses the SAME BUSINESS MODEL as ACORN seems to be using. They hire, well let's be generous and call them not college graduates, to do this work and they get paid by the piece.
Based on the reporting I've seen in Ohio, there have been a percentage of registrations which have been falsified but 50% or more? I don't think so. However we saw that with the Payday Lending's petition drive effort and it seemed to be just an average news story and not a cause for wailing and gnashing of teeth.
The actual amount of fraudulent VOTING (not registration, but voting) is rather rare mainly because people aren't stupid. When a BOE clerk gets a card that says Mickey Mouse he or she knows it crap and does whatever their procedure requires to keep it from the system.
If there is a scandal out there is the in the business model each process uses to get the work done.
But of course, that doesn't sound as frightening to an increasingly desperate right wing as they see the Presidency slipping away from them.
GOP Voter Suppression
http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2008/10/acorns_mess_gr...ork_looks/prin...
"...The leap, however, from such shenanigans to actual voter fraud on Election Day is a long one. And the further leap to implicate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in trying to "steal the election" through such fraud is clearly a jump too far...Under the Help America Vote Act, all newly registered voters are matched against other public records. If there is a discrepancy between the registration cards and existing data, the new registrants are required to show a picture ID or some other identifying information when they vote. If they can't prove they are legitimate, they cannot vote."
Even Jeff Hastings the GOP County Chair who filed suit in Cuyahoga County agrees: "Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, a Republican, says the likelihood of people being able to vote if they are not rightfully registered is slight. So does Jeff Hastings, the Republican board of elections chair in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which has asked county prosecutors to investigate the registration fraud..."
And, this just in: http://www.syracuse.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/polit...storylist=tops...
Judge: Mich. can't reject voters with bad address
10/13/2008, 3:57 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — A judge has ordered Michigan election officials to stop automatically canceling a voter's registration if the card is returned as undeliverable...More than 1,400 voters in that category have been disqualified so far in 2008." In rendering this opinion Judge Murphy said, "It's unclear how many cancelations actually are wrong but it's a violation of federal law and those people shouldn't be prevented from voting if they can produce more proof of residency at the polls."
By the way, here's some additional info on Voter Suppression:
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/309358
Great Point
Hey Kevin DeWine? When are you going after the payday lenders?
Is it true that Bob Bennett's business partner, Tom Whatman, is working for the payday campaign? Is that why no fuss on payday, lots of fuss on ACORN?
Double Standard
Guess I'm not surprised. What a double standard from the GOP! Apparently if you know the right folks, the preservation of Democracy only gets dealt with on a case by case basis and only when it serves a purely political purpose!
Vote yes on issue 5!