As if you needed more reason to be sick of ACORN there's the distinct possibility that they are the reason that (it still hurts to say this) Al Franken is now a member of the US Senate.
How's that you say? Quite simply, it's all about math. Voter fraud math, that is.
After all the recounts and selective re-recounts were done, Franken won the election by an "official" 312 votes. And ACORN claims that they registered almost 50,000 voters in Minnesota last year. And, given the large percentage of ACORN registrations that have been proven fraudulent (too say nothing of further allegations), you easily come up with a "fraud" number bigger than the margin of victory in the race.
Kaus [7] points out the following story from the folks at the Star-Tribune [8]in Minneapolis...
...ACORN's foibles may seem largely irrelevant here in Minnesota, where the organization has so far been able to keep its nose relatively clean.
But ACORN does have a special place in its heart for at least one prominent Minnesota politician. Last year, it showered praise on Al Franken, endorsing his run for the U.S. Senate. Franken returned the esteem: "I'm thrilled and honored to receive this endorsement," he gushed in a press release. He added that he was "more motivated than ever to work with ACORN." ...
In October 2008, ACORN announced triumphantly that it had registered about 1.3 million new voters in 18 battleground states, among them Minnesota. A few weeks later, however, the director of Project Vote -- an ACORN affiliate -- acknowledged to the New York Times that election officials had rejected about 400,000 of those, for reasons including duplicate registrations, incomplete forms and (in the Times' words) "fraudulent submissions from low-paid field workers trying to please their supervisors."
Nothing new here. ACORN's registration drives "routinely produce fraudulent registrations," according to a staff report released in July 2009 by the ranking Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The report describes ACORN as "a criminal conspiracy" and details violations ranging from unpaid taxes to a million-dollar embezzlement and cover-up. "To date," the report says, "nearly 70 ACORN employees have been convicted in 12 states for voter-registration fraud." ...
In May 2009, Nevada's attorney general charged ACORN and two employees with 39 felonies. Authorities raided ACORN offices after complaints about numerous forms with false addresses and names -- including the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys. Forty-eight percent of forms turned in were "clearly fraudulent," according to a Las Vegas election official. ...
Just to add a little more insult to the injury here, don't forget that it was Franken's win in Minnesota that allowed Democrats to claim the 60th Senate seat, potentially giving them a filibuster proof majority.
The vast majority of elections in this country are won or lost at the margins. And corruption like this (federally funded corruption in fact) can make an outsized impact on our system of government, politics and public policy.
Which is exactly why they do it.
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TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to FULLY (not partially) defund ACORN now! [9]
...ACORN's foibles may seem largely irrelevant here in Minnesota, where the organization has so far been able to keep its nose relatively clean.