CNN’s Misleading Report on ACORN

By
Friday, October 10, 2008 at 2:00 pm

Anyone watching CNN last night might have thought that ACORN (Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is trying to steal the upcoming presidential election for the Democrats.

“ACORN accused of voter fraud” read last night’s CNN headline. Then anchor Campbell Brown gravely presented the results of the cable channel’s “special investigative unit.”

It’s not exactly a tribute to CNN’s investigative team that it was able to come up with a set of allegations against ACORN.

As I reported two days ago, the Republican attorney general in Nevada conducted a high-profile raid on the community organizing group’s headquarters in Las Vegas. Twenty boxes of documents and eight computer drives were seized.

Months before that, Republicans were regularly claiming that ACORN, which aims to register mostly low-income and minority voters, is trying to steal the presidential election for Sen. Barack Obama.

Now, the GOP is widely distributing the YouTube clip of last night’s CNN show, under the Banner headline, “CNN Exposes How ACORN Steals Votes & Ties to Obama”.

Once again,  CNN and the Republican operatives neglect to mention this: Even if thousands of ACORN workers register thousands of non-existent voters simply to make a quick buck — and the evidence points to that as the workers’ motive — those non-existent people are NOT showing up to vote on election day.

The fraud, then, is on ACORN, who pays these workers, not on the electoral process or on the American people, as the Republicans want you to believe.

The Republicans have two goals in going after ACORN.

One, they want to tar Obama because his campaign gave $800,000 to ACORN to support its massive voter-registration drive. Given ACORN’s reach around the country with potential Democratic voters, that’s not surprising. (The Obama campaign now says it’s no longer supporting ACORN’s efforts.)

And, with the help of CNN, they want to play the guilt-by-association card. Years ago, Obama was on a team of lawyers that represented ACORN, among others, in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois for refusing to implement the federal motor-voter law.  Obama and ACORN won the case.

The Bush administration’s Justice Department sided with ACORN (and Obama) in that case, so I guess it is guilty of trying to steal the election for the Democrats too?

It’s not surprising that the Republican Party would try to smear Obama by attacking a community organizing group that specializes in registering low-income voters.

But CNN’s “investigative team” ought to do a little of its own investigating before it buys into the Republican’s claims of “voter fraud” and suggests that community groups are trying to steal the election for the Democrats.

Comments

51 Comments

ADenny
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 11:05 am

CNN stopped investigating the majority of stories they air some tome ago. They just regurgitate what they find on the web-regardles of whom or how well the story was initially investigated.


joe
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 11:42 am

Well in Ohio ACORN is registering and voting with absentee ballots.
The Ohio SOS has just been ordered to verify thousands of ballots.
Of course she (a Dem) is appealing that ruling.


Patrick1955
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 11:44 am

Clearly Ms. Eviatar you miss the point. ACORN has attempted to register tens of thousands of non-existent or duplicate voters. Even if one of those voters gets to vote twice the process is perverted and the American people are cheated. Enough of the left wing's nonsense. I say the Department of Justice needs to indict a few of the ACORN leadership for election fraud.


Ann
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 11:45 am

I saw the CNN “investigative” report last night and afterwards thought “So What”? Since these were phoney names and addresses, there is not voter fraud. The fraud is on Acorn itself and any donors who supported them such as the Obama campaign. I am glad to hear that Obama has stopped supporting them. Generally, the Obama organization I am a part of seems to be following very strict guidelines when we canvass.


Man Overboard
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 11:54 am

How can you possibly deny wrong doing here:

OBAMA DONASTES $800,000 TO acorn
OBAMA ONCE REPRESENTED ACORN
PELOSI TRIED EARNMARK MILLIONS TO ACORN IN THE BAILOUT BILL
ACORN FILED THOUSANDS OF FRAUDULENT VOTER REGISTRATIONS IN FAVOR OF OBAMA

Give me a break, these people are criminals and they are on obviously the DNC payroll. People need to go to jail for this!


Todd
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 11:56 am

Obama is the King and we will be his people. Just deal with it… Long live Obama…


Phil
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 11:59 am

People in the United States of America can do anything honest these day's got to be some kind of scandel, corruption or being dishonest. We are to confortable with screwing up someone else's life so long as it's not our own.


John
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:01 pm

Yeah, no one would ever think of voting twice with those voter registration cards that are being sent out. We are all honest American's who would never dream of bending the rules.


Ralph Kirkley
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:03 pm

check out FOX News Sunday evening, the truth will come out when the true Obama is exposed


Robert Rohrer
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:03 pm

Ann & Daphne, clearly you both are missing the point. Albeit, even though CNN could of been more precise with their headline by saying 'potential' voter fraud, this is still a very serious matter, and to read Ann's statement of “So What” is an insult to every American. I get the feeling you wouldn't be saying this if it were McCain sponsoring ACORN. And Daphne, your statement, “those non-existent people are NOT showing up to vote on election day.” is clearly misleading and most likely completely *false*! How do you know that was not intended to allow real people to show up with fake ID's? Shame on you reporting this as if it weren't a big deal. It is a big deal regardless of which party could potentially benefit.


Robert Rohrer
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:03 pm

Ann & Daphne, clearly you both are missing the point. Albeit, even though CNN could of been more precise with their headline by saying 'potential' voter fraud, this is still a very serious matter, and to read Ann's statement of “So What” is an insult to every American. I get the feeling you wouldn't be saying this if it were McCain sponsoring ACORN. And Daphne, your statement, “those non-existent people are NOT showing up to vote on election day.” is clearly misleading and most likely completely *false*! How do you know that was not intended to allow real people to show up with fake ID's? Shame on you reporting this as if it weren't a big deal. It is a big deal regardless of which party could potentially benefit.


Steve
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:05 pm

The problem isnt that a bunch of registered dead people wont be voting on Nov. 4. The problem is in states like Ohio, you can now register and vote the same day, before Nov. 4th and people are doing so under names and addresses that are not their own. Who the F lives at McDonalds?

One case showed one man, a guy who works in a pizza shop voting in a couple different counties in his state. IF thats not voter fraud Mr. Eviatar, then what is?


Rob
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:08 pm

So we should feel SYMPATHY for ACORN?!

Please. If they weren't trying to cheat the system intentionally, then they were being irresponsible with the public trust. Either way, this looks bad for a group that Barack Obama has exteremely close ties to.


markm
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:08 pm

Oh yeah, the criminal is the victim, sure thing. Anyone who grew up in Chicago knows that voting is a right that does not end with death. Absentee ballots, mail-ins, and roving bus-loads of winos will all work . By the way, when we finish with ACORN we can start on “Obama 2012″. An Obama-Pelosi-Reid regime will register anywhere from 10 to 12 million “undocumented worker” voters to cement in a permanent Democrat voting block. The track is already being laid.


Matt Hudson
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:08 pm

Ms.Eviatar displays far too much naivete here. The fraudulent registrations allow persons to vote multiple times. That is where the fraud comes in. Statements like “those non-existent people are NOT showing up to vote” displays childish credulity on Ms. Eviatar's part. Granted, there probably was a greed motivation to obtain the actual registrations in return for compensation. But to state that somehow people are misleading about their reporting and falsely suggesting theft of the vote is either disingenuous or gullible.


Ann
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:09 pm

Type your comment here
Man Overboard,
By your reasoning we are all guilty by association. I paid my taxes and what kind of country did I get. Am I guilty for being loyal and responsible if it turns out that I am being led by a wolf in sheeps clothing and my country collapses after 8 years? If I stand up for someone's rights as an advocate for that person, should I let my prejudice or dislike of that person get in the way? Come on now. Let's grow up and start using our brains.


jon
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:09 pm

You people just never get it, if someone registers as Donald Duck, nobody named Donald Duck is going to vote. The problem with ACORN is not Voter Fraud, it's their hiring practices. They're hiring people that are submitting worthless registrations… taking ACORN money, and not doing the work.


Jim
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:09 pm

Daphne…

You say the Republicans have two goals. I actually see a third. When the McCain-Palin ticket loses in November, you'll hear howls of vioter fraud because their candidates lost. And then Rush Limbaugh and FOX News will beat that drum for the first four years of the Obama-Biden Administration.

Mark my words. That's what the future holds.


John Locke
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:09 pm

Daphne Eviatar – This is not objective reporting, as it is a known fact that CNN favors Obama – Would you scream loudly about Obama's skeletons, such as lying about being a former Muslim, as his brother stated, and produced a picture proving it? Back to ACORN, Obama has been tied to it and that has been proven. Just google or UTube it and you'll see, if you are interested in the facts on this issue. People will rise up, as in the Ukraine election, overthrowing it when the election was a fraud, regardless of reporters like you.


ThePhotogsBlog
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:10 pm

CNN is to journalism what McDonalds is to cuisine; fast, sloppily assembled, full of garbage.


Rob
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:12 pm

Again, irresponsibility with the public trust (if that's as far as this goes) is STILL unacceptable.


Rob
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:12 pm

And, with this kind of shenanigans, they'll probably be right.


Nick Wallace
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:14 pm

Todd: By saying absolutely ridiculous things like “Obama is the King”, you make my argument for me.
Sincere thanks :-)


John
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:14 pm

The Media is slowly admitting to the truth, Obama is corrupt and not trust worthy. Slowly America will open its eyes. Not everyone can be racist, Obama used this in Kenya it did not work there and it will not work in the United States. I can not believe he divided this Country to try to win the election.


Rob
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:15 pm

I think Todd was being facetious.

I hope.


Matt Hudson
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:20 pm

“You people just never get it, if someone registers as Donald Duck, nobody named Donald Duck is going to vote.”
Are you serious?! I have personally seen local elections in which persons inhabiting the local cemetery were listed as actually voting! Now, if your assertion holds true then those voters actually rose from the dead to exercise their voting privileges. Or, the alternative is that SOMEONE ELSE voted in their name. Which is the more rational explanation, in your opinion?


MrPete
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:21 pm

Guess who pays “non-partisan” ACORN to register voters? WE DO. So we're shelling out big bucks for registrations that game the system.

Do invalid registrations game the system? Yes: students are only allowed to register at their legal residence, which for out of state residents is typically parents. And since many places no longer require verification of ID, a person can multiply register using two names or addresses… and get away with it.

Is it happening? YES. We're already seeing convictions.

Sorry, Daphne, you blew it.


R
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:22 pm

“Once again, CNN and the Republican operatives neglect to mention this: Even if thousands of ACORN workers register thousands of non-existent voters… those non-existent people are NOT showing up to vote on election day. “

Who says? With Democrats fighting to ensure that IDs are not required to vote, those “non-existent people” may very well be voting.


tmac
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:22 pm

Daphne, are you retarded? Many of these “fake” voters were allowed to do instant voting. Now do you understand the concern? Quit drinking the kool-aid.


tmac
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:23 pm

I say shut AHOLE down now and then throw out the entire lot of registrations. I'd bet that only 10% of them are worth their weight in dung anyway.


John
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:30 pm

Obama Pays $961,000 For Half-Hour Ad… Is this coming out of the 3.5 million dollars of fradulant foreign contributions?


Macktn
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:50 pm

Having once worked for Acorn, I can say with the utmost confidence that what's b eing printed in the media about the organization is completely false. Yes, Acorn registers a lot of people using primarily college students and other people who go out everyday and for hours walk neighborhoods, knock on doors, talk about Acorn, talk about issues in the neighborhoods, ask for donations, and register voters. Their people give the registration cards to the potential voter who fill them out. It's up to the door knocker to check for accuracy & completeness. Or sometimes the door knocker will fill it out if the target voter's language skills are shaky. They get paid .10 for each new voter.

CNN is outrageous. Why not interview someone from Acorn?


ncp
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:53 pm

Question: There have been voter registration drives since the civil rights movement started back when. How is it that there can be so many unregistered voters STILL out there?! If you count young, first time voters and newly naturalized citizens, how many can that be and how does that translate to actual voting on election day? This is assuming, of course, that anyone older than, say, college age, is already registered and has been for at least one presidential election cycle.


Agust
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 12:57 pm

Actually the way they do it in Chicago is register thousands of bogus names to one address, then send in an absentee ballot request for each one. Vote and mail them back in. No ID needed because the postal service no longer looks at names, they just deliver to the address.


Las Vegan
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 1:37 pm

Idiots, even if you don't have ID, you have to be registered to begin with, and in most areas you have to sign your signature and have it matched to the rolls on voting day. If you think it's so easy to vote more than once, then why don't you try it? God knows the Republicans are going to need any help they can get come November 4.

Secondly, have any of you fracks been to Las Vegas from mid-April to mid October? It's hotter than a Republican seeing the presidency slipping away. It's not right what the workers did, but I understand why they'd make up names in a cool library instead of earning their pay. What it comes down to is that ACORN has been consistently trying to be above board, informing state officials of discrepancies as soon as they find out, for over a year, yet the Republican officials essentially do nothing until now? Why would ACORN in any shape or form condone any type of fraud when it would only hurt the integrity of their organization? Please spare me your indignation over the fraud.

Keep in mind that this ACORN incident pales in comparison to the actual voter disenfranchisement that happened in Vegas back in 2004 or 2006. I don't remember the particulars, but a company with fairly extensive Republican and conservative ties would register people to vote under the impression of being a non-partisan organization, but then they would take registrations of Democrats and throw them away. These weren't made up people, but actual citizens disenfranchised for partisan power purposes.

Thirdly, most of you would want the baby thrown out with the bath water. Of course you would, because you don't believe in democratic principles of all citizens getting a vote. But I digress. What is more harmful: correcting this “wrong” by invalidating all the registrations of this organization, or disenfranchising thousands and thousands of citizens from voter rolls because a few hundred non-existent people are listed (who will non-existently “vote” come election day)? Keep in mind that people of all parties were registered by this organization–it wasn't a partisan effort. If poor people and minorites happen to lean Democrat, it is only a reflection of inequitable Republican policies.

Finally, you geniuses need to realize you're in the age of computers. It is a lot easier to commit fraud hacking the computer systems of the voting machines than trying to have some conspiracy of registering several hundred non-existent voters. It's the turn of the century, all right, but you're 100 years behind. Americans need to be more worried about practically untraceable system hacking that UC scientists have uncovered and demonstrated. Guess who has deep ties to the companies that deploy the electronic voting systems. Jesus I detest feckless fools with no sense of citizenship and fair play, only caring if their “team” wins (as if all this were just some NFL game, rah rah). You have no integrity.


Robert Rohrer
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 3:02 pm

well, where is that acorn rep? – i guarantee you the media would love to do a press release interview – if you ask me, their still trying to think of what possibly they can say to cover up this scandal


kris
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 4:38 pm

Funny thing ,I felt last night while watching the story that there must be dirty politics behind it ( Mc Cain) and dirty republicans. Now my “feelings” were right. Cnn must come out and tell the truth who really is behind again trying to get Senator Obama and regurlaly smear democrats name throuhg the mud.


double w
Comment posted October 10, 2008 @ 9:41 pm

It would be easier to have a republican plant inside the company filing bogus forms to get the company in trouble than it would be to have hundreds of thousands of dedicated fake voters, all armed with fake IDs, driving across their states in order to win them. The republican version of the conspiracy falls apart under it's own logistical weight.


robert howell
Comment posted October 16, 2008 @ 5:32 am

The only thing that will save the voters from the lawyers is a clear victory for one side or the other.


ProFromOregon
Comment posted October 29, 2008 @ 10:30 am

how much you betting, 'cause I'll take as much of that bet as you got the guts for. If you notice during the CNN segment, they were sketchy about the process of coming up with the results they reported. They say they saw a high percentage false registrations.

After hearing how ACORN manages the issue of registrations they are unable to validate. I learned they divide them into a 'suspect' pile to make it easier for the election board to then check on.

It sounds like the reporter 'sneeked a peak' of a pile without permission and it turned out to be the 'suspect' pile.


Progressive From Oregon
Comment posted October 29, 2008 @ 10:32 am

How about a source for the claim of fradulent donations.

“Internet information without validation is vapor-mation”


Progressive From Oregon
Comment posted October 29, 2008 @ 10:54 am

Got any proof there have been any convictions?

“Yes: students are only allowed to register at their legal residence, which for out of state residents is typically parents”

Incorrect according to a 1997 Supreme Court ruling –
http://supreme.justia.com/us/439/1105/case.html

“And since many places no longer require verification of ID, a person can multiply register using two names or addresses”

Misleading and untruthful. Your statement implies that ID was once necessary. Not true. It has been a recent push by the Failure Party to require ID fueled by their false claims of voter fraud that has caused ID to now be required. http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/41…

“Internet information without validation is vapor-mation”

Sorry, Mr Pete, you are wrong.


Progressive From Oregon
Comment posted October 29, 2008 @ 10:57 am

He has united and rallied a long silent and disconnected portion of the country; then multiple generations demoralized by the pardon of Nixon.

“Obama used this in Kenya” whatever you mean with by this should be backed up with some proof. Otherwise it is worthless.

'Internet information without validation is vapor-mation'


Progressive From Oregon
Comment posted October 29, 2008 @ 11:29 am

how about you actually cite a reference for this long held urban myth

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/206969_dead…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar…

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_c…


ProFromOregon
Comment posted October 29, 2008 @ 5:30 pm

how much you betting, 'cause I'll take as much of that bet as you got the guts for. If you notice during the CNN segment, they were sketchy about the process of coming up with the results they reported. They say they saw a high percentage false registrations.

After hearing how ACORN manages the issue of registrations they are unable to validate. I learned they divide them into a 'suspect' pile to make it easier for the election board to then check on.

It sounds like the reporter 'sneeked a peak' of a pile without permission and it turned out to be the 'suspect' pile.


Progressive From Oregon
Comment posted October 29, 2008 @ 5:32 pm

How about a source for the claim of fradulent donations.

“Internet information without validation is vapor-mation”


Progressive From Oregon
Comment posted October 29, 2008 @ 5:54 pm

Got any proof there have been any convictions?

“Yes: students are only allowed to register at their legal residence, which for out of state residents is typically parents”

Incorrect according to a 1997 Supreme Court ruling –
http://supreme.justia.com/us/439/1105/case.html

“And since many places no longer require verification of ID, a person can multiply register using two names or addresses”

Misleading and untruthful. Your statement implies that ID was once necessary. Not true. It has been a recent push by the Failure Party to require ID fueled by their false claims of voter fraud that has caused ID to now be required. http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/41…

“Internet information without validation is vapor-mation”

Sorry, Mr Pete, you are wrong.


Progressive From Oregon
Comment posted October 29, 2008 @ 5:57 pm

He has united and rallied a long silent and disconnected portion of the country; then multiple generations demoralized by the pardon of Nixon.

“Obama used this in Kenya” whatever you mean with by this should be backed up with some proof. Otherwise it is worthless.

'Internet information without validation is vapor-mation'


Progressive From Oregon
Comment posted October 29, 2008 @ 6:29 pm

how about you actually cite a reference for this long held urban myth

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/206969_dead…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar…

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_c…


Designer Clothes
Comment posted April 20, 2011 @ 6:46 am

Why ACORN submit registration forms to which it had deemed “suspicious”? Because in most state laws, voter registration organizations are required to submit all forms they receive. In a telephone conversation today, ACORN press coordinator Charles Jackson confirmed that this is the case in Indiana.


Celebrex Generic
Comment posted April 20, 2011 @ 7:31 am

Two employees at the Baltimore, Maryland, branch of the liberal community organizing group ACORN were caught on tape allegedly offering advice to a pair posing as a pimp and prostitute on setting up a prostitution ring and evading the IRS


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