And the dirty elections continue

[unixronin]

Seems the Macomb County, Michigan Republican Party is gathering a list of foreclosed homes prior to the November election.

Why?

Apparently so that they can deny the foreclosed-upon their votes, since some of them are no longer technically residents of the precinct.  "Mean-spirited" is putting it mildly.

I've said it before, I'll say it again:  The people running the political machines are scum of the worst kind.

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Update:

It's been pointed out to me that this is far from an objective source.  I don't know anything about ACORN, which features prominently.  Biased source or not, I'm still disgusted by the dirty tricks that both [arties pull to either disqualify voters for the other party or invalidate their ballots by any means possible.  I clearly remember the 2000 campaign, and the Gore campaign lawyers distributing an inch-thick book to Democratic counting-room staff in Florida detailing all the possible ways to invalidate military absentee ballots on minor technicalities, because military absentee voters were expected to vote for Bush.

What the fuck happened to democracy and everyone being entitled to vote?  How do you get from that to "Use every dirty trick in the book to disenfranchise as many opposing voters as you possibly can"?

I personally won't be surprised if I wake up one day to find Congress has passed a new election law that, without actually saying so in so many words, makes it illegal to vote for any candidate who isn't either Democratic or Republican.  Call me cynical, but I suspect a major reason why it hasn't happened already is simply that they haven't figured out a way to get away with it.

Comments

[unix-jedi.livejournal.com]

and remember it as being an above board and idealistic organization.
I can't, of course, speak to your recollections. And "Idealistic", I'll readily concede as likely.
Some of their problems come from the lack of training, paying people for registrations without checking, sure.
However, if you'll track what they've been up to in the last 10 years, it's by no means what I'd consider "Above board". This includes refusing to pay minimum wage - while in the middle of a campaign to force the minimum wage higher (http://www.janegalt.net/blog/archives/005713.html#61535).

The best overall expose of ACORN was by Stern: “The banks know they are being held up, but they are not going to fight over this. They look at it as a cost of doing business.” Some of ACORN’s fellow community activists are even blunter. “ACORN knows that corporate America has no starch in their shorts and, therefore, what they try to do is buy peace from groups that agitate against them,” (http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_2_acorns_nutty_regime.html)

ACORN replied to that article, of course.: Acorn-friendly reply to Stern entitled “Enraging the Right.” Written by academic/activists John Atlas and Peter Dreier, the reply’s avowed intent is to convince Acorn-friendly politicians, journalists, and funders not to desert the organization in the wake of Stern’s powerful critique. The stunning thing about this supposed rebuttal is that it confirms nearly everything Stern says. (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMjE0ODI=&w=MA==)

But I think that the piling on, making ACORN out to be "the worst of the worst", is definitely excessive.

Not if you're interested in clean elections. I am. There's a lot of fire there. Not just in voting registration. That's just what's drawn my attention.

The brother, Dale Rathke, embezzled nearly $1 million from Acorn and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000, Acorn officials said, but a small group of executives decided to keep the information from almost all of the group’s board members and not to alert law enforcement.
Dale Rathke remained on Acorn’s payroll until a month ago, when disclosure of his theft by foundations and other donors forced the organization to dismiss him. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/us/09embezzle.html)

I'm sorry, but ACORN getting a pass for any comment on election law or fairness is just utterly Bizarro World. But the media does give them a pass, because well, they're idealists, and they mostly agree, so surely it's just a few bad apples! (Or, err, bad acorns.) Look at the venom in this story against the Republicans. Notice the lack of mention of anything concerning ACORN's issues - they've been doing their level best to disenfranchise people and make the voting system defraudable. Acorn's practice of dumping thousands of registration forms in their lap on the submission deadline, even though the forms had been collected months earlier. "... what's the point of that, ... overwhelm the system ... phony registrations on the voter rolls,"... "These were Democratic officials saying that they felt their election system in Ohio was under assault by these kinds of efforts to game the system." (http://opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009189)

You can say a lot of things about ACORN. Idealistic, sure. Above board - not anymore, at least.