GOP accused of voter fraud ala ACORN

[CCA]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/22/uselections2008-republicans

US election: Republican operative faces voter registration fraud chargesAccusations come on the heels of Republican John McCain's

While John McCain has attacked the liberal US community group Acorn for alleged voter registration fraud, the Republican party continues to employ operatives facing fraud accusations including one who faces criminal perjury charges.

Democrats are accusing McCain of hypocrisy after the weekend arrest of Mark Jacoby, a California Republican operative. Jacoby has been accused of voter registration fraud after registering himself to vote at two homes where he did not live.

The arrest comes after McCain and running mate Sarah Palin attempted to tie Barack Obama's campaign to Acorn, playing up a federal investigation of the group's voter registration tactics in several states.

"Over the past few weeks we've heard John McCain denounce voter fraud on the campaign trail while the [Republican party] hurls false attacks, so the question is: where is the outrage now?" Democratic spokesman Karen Finney asked yesterday.

Jacoby is the second Republican operative revealed this week to possess a questionable record on voter registration. Nathan Sproul – who has been investigated by Congress for allegedly destroying voter registration forms and intimidating voters – got paid $175,000 by the McCain camp this year.

"The Republicans [and] the McCain campaign have been hammering away for weeks with the same old Washington politics," Democratic party lawyer Joe Sandler said in a statement.

"In fact, none of the charges that they've been talking about have actually panned out."

Democrats called on McCain to cut his ties to both voter-registration operatives, citing frequent Republican attacks on Acorn. Obama represented Acorn as an attorney years before beginning his political career, and the group has endorsed him this year, but his camp has denied any link to Acorn's voter-registration activities.

The California Republican party told a local newspaper yesterday that their contract with Jacoby ended this week, after the state's voter registration period expired. No announcement has been made about the renewal of the contract.

Will the Republicans who vigourously attacked ACORN do the same to their own party?

 

[EnlightenmentHK]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/22/uselections2008-republicans

Will the Republicans who vigourously attacked ACORN do the same to their own party?

No. They'll charge you with hypocrisy for only caring about fraud when Republicans are doing it. Hell, they'll probably have done that already before I even finish this post.

 

[Simple Simon]

same old song and dance: if you read Clinton's (auto-)biography you know how the game is played. He won because he played as dirty as his opponents.

In fact, anyone pointing out that Republicans do unfair and illegal things will find himself called unAmerican, antiAmerican, and a terrorist - in this order and with increasing loudness.

 

[BSmith1068]

I wrote about this in the other ACORN thread. Funny how there is not a huge outcry from the republicans on this voter registration fraud…

Where is the Republican outrage about voter registration fraud on this one?:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#27313459
http://firedoglake.com/2008/10/19/ypm-head-arrested-in-california/

 

[Narz]

Another fun article I jumped to from the OP's article. God bless our precious "fiscal conservatives".

 

[Cutlass]

Another fun article I jumped to from the OP's article. God bless our precious "fiscal conservatives".

That's the way they think the budget should be balanced

 

[malclave]

Not quite "ala ACORN".

Jacoby should certainly be prosecuted for voter registration fraud. However, as I understand it, the fraud extends to him registering to vote twice. ACORN is accused of submitting huge numbers of fraudulent voter registrations. Plus, although I don't think they're linked directly to ACORN, I've read reports of individuals (who happen to be Obama activists) who are quite likely fraudulently registered to vote who have requested and been issued vote-by-mail ballots.

I haven't read anything on Sproul this year... I'll have to look for that.

 

[AngryZealot]

ACORN is accused of submitting huge numbers of fraudulent voter registrations.

ACORN is also required by law to turn in every registration, and ACORN itself flags the registrations that look suspicious.

 

[malclave]

Yes, that's what they say. I still think thousands upon thousands of likely fraudulent registrations is excessive.

But, the Republicans did have one fraudulent registration, so it's all the same.

 

[Cutlass]

Registrations are not votes. And the group making the registrations flagged many of the questionable ones.

 

[JollyRoger]

Yes, that's what they say. I still think thousands upon thousands of likely fraudulent registrations is excessive.

You gotta a source for "thousands upon thousands?"

 

[JeffIllinois]

Not quite "ala ACORN".

Jacoby should certainly be prosecuted for voter registration fraud. However, as I understand it, the fraud extends to him registering to vote twice. ACORN is accused of submitting huge numbers of fraudulent voter registrations. Plus, although I don't think they're linked directly to ACORN, I've read reports of individuals (who happen to be Obama activists) who are quite likely fraudulently registered to vote who have requested and been issued vote-by-mail ballots.

I haven't read anything on Sproul this year... I'll have to look for that.

Jacoby was slamming voters, or registering people as republicans without their knowledge. This is worse than anything ACORN did, I'd be horrified to find out I'd been registered as a republican. Sproul was caught doing the same thing in 2000, and 2004, McCain still hired him. McCain has Arizona connections with both these crooks. I wonder how many people these two scumbags have slammed for McCain.

 

[Cutlass]

Jacoby was slamming voters, or registering people as republicans without their knowledge. This is worse than anything ACORN did, I'd be horrified to find out I'd been registered as a republican. Sproul was caught doing the same thing in 2000, and 2004, McCain still hired him. McCain has Arizona connections with both these crooks. I wonder how many people these two scumbags have slammed for McCain.

I get letters and phone calls from the Republicans from time to time thinking I'm one of them. I wonder if they did that to me?

 

[BSmith1068]

This is a good article that goes into some detail on what Mark Jacoby’s company YPM has been doing:

http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/74877

Their findings were surprising. Of all the voters who were contacted, more than 80% said they had intended to register Democrat and that their party had been switched without their knowledge or permission.

More than 75% of the phone numbers listed were no good, and these registrations were just two weeks old. Republicans usually require 75% phone numbers on the cards they pay for, so it is necessary to invent phone numbers in order to get paid.

This practice is called "slamming" in political consultant parlance, and it is a felony violation of the California Election Codes that carries penalties of up to 16 months in state prison for each incident.

The Democrats confirmed what an assistant Registrar had told them. The company doing the criminal "slamming" is called "Young Political Majors" (YPM).

YPM is owned and operated by Mark Jacoby, who is contracted by Bill Arno of Arno Political Consultants in Sacramento, and financed by California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poisner.

Steve Poisner is the McCain Campaign’s California State Co-Chair. We now have the McCain Campaign directly tied to voter registration fraud.

 

[JeffIllinois]

This is a good article that goes into some detail on what Mark Jacoby’s company YPM has been doing:

http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/74877



Steve Poisner is the McCain Campaign’s California State Co-Chair. We now have the McCain Campaign directly tied to voter registration fraud.

Yes, so Jacoby is being sent to the slammer. Poisner should be sent up the river too, and the McCain campaign should be investigated for funding this garbage. McCain knew what these guys were good for.

 

[holy king]

is stating that america is not a working democracy a new sport among the american parties?

 

[JeffIllinois]

is stating that america is not a working democracy a new sport among the american parties?

The republicans started all this with their anti-ACORN racist B.S. It was all a smoke screen to hide crap like this voter slamming. Everyone else has to respond or they'll get away with it.

 

[Death_Machine]

Yes, so Jacoby is being sent to the slammer. Poisner should be sent up the river too, and the McCain campaign should be investigated for funding this garbage. McCain knew what these guys were good for.

I'm sorry dude, but the stench of your hypocrisy is just incredible. Let me put this down on the screen just so I can make sure I have it right in my head.

You believe Obama has nothing to do with acorn, yet McCain knew what these clowns were doing, is that right?

Damn, I forgot. You're the double agent. My bad.

 

[Janusi]

The title is obviously wrong. ACORN is being persecuted for trying to comply with the law while this guy broke the law but will most likely get away with it.

And Death Machine, Mccain's campaign paid for Poisner's operation while ACORN isn't working for Obama. So yeah, there is a difference.

 

[Halcyon]

As others have said, the whole ACORN accusation is pretty much complete hogwash: since they pay people to go out and help/get people to register, they inevitably get a few dossers who make up registrations just to meet quota. Both ACORN and the election officials check the validity of the registrations, and ACORN flag any they find suspicious - but are obliged by law to hand them over anyway. The chances of Michael J. Mouse actually casting a vote are basically nil.

Accusing your opponents of your own misdeeds is a time-old tactic of the worst kind of politicians. Takes all the impact out of the eventual counteraccusations, since people are so bored of your hot air that most just assume it to be the more of the same and ignore it.

McCain's campaign has basically spun "a few hundred dodgy applications out of tens of thousands" into "massive systematic registration of dead people and cats: election rigged", regardless of the actual facts, purely because they think people are gullible enough to believe everything they say without question, and won't check the facts. Given that a decent chunk of the US populace believes that Obama is a radical Islamist based entirely on stupid Fw: Fw: Fw: emails and an unusual name, it's probably a fair assumption.

As a result the US media will see this as too boring for news, as with the mass voter deregistration (by sheer chance, entirely in urban poor/black areas), the intimidation, the blatant libel, the misinformation (like the posters saying things like "if you register to vote and are a student/have any debts, you will be homeless/lose your scholarship/go to jail"). A thousand hours of wittering about flag pins and soundbites from priests, and barely a mention when people start stuffing ballot boxes right in front of them. Then all the political cartoonists and talk radio hosts will whine forever about how radically left-wing the media coverage is. Hah. May Canada conquer the lot of ye.