McShame, ACORN, and Vote Supression

Today's column by Bob Herbert in the NY Times illustrates the Rethuglican Party's attempt, once again, to suppress votes. The phony ACORN "scandal" was puffed up by McShame and the Rethugs in an attempt to call the election results into question, and to provide cover for their election day vote suppression. In the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004, the Rethugs used ham-fisted tactics of limiting the number of voting machines in Democratic districts, posting flyers in those districts with false voting information, and stationing off-duty police carrying their service revolvers outside minority voting precincts.

The ACORN nonsense is the vanguard of this year's vote suppression activity. Some ACORN canvassers were poorly chosen and paid by the number of registration sheets they could produce. So some "registered" such shadowy characters as "Mickey Mouse" and "Fred's Tavern." By law, ACORN is required to turn in ALL registration sheets, and to flag the suspicious or incomplete ones. ACORN in fact identified the vast majority of bogus registrations themselves. Local Boards of Elections screen the registrations for errors and duplications. Who in their right mind thinks that someone calling themselves "Mickey Mouse" or "Fred's Tavern" would show up to actually vote?

This is another example of the Rethugs thinking that the American people are too stupid to understand their game.