Honest and Open Election Committee – UPDATED

Yes, McCain has a committee by this name, with Senator John Danforth taking the lead (and Senator Rudman is also on this committee). On October 29th, Senator Danforth held a conference call to talk primarily about ACORN and the problems associated with their activities in this election.

The good senator began by observing the commonly touted refrain that while Republicans are concerned with voter fraud, Democrats are concerned with voter suppression. Senator Danforth’s response to that refrain is that they are opposite sides of the same coin, and neither one is acceptable. The way he sees it is that there are two objectives in terms of voting: those who are eligible should be able to vote freely, fairly, and without fear of intimidation. But, those who are not eligible, for whatever reason, should not be able to vote (e.g., duplicate registrations, length of residency, etc.).

Senator Danforth spoke to the purpose of voter registrations: “

The purpose of registrations is to provide a system regarding the integrity of the election itself, so when it is subverted, it undermines the whole process of doing elections.”

Exactly. And he spoke to the problem of faulty registrations, something I mentioned the other day, too. When states are flooded with faulty registrations, it is disruptive to the system, and raises the strong possibility of fraud. Well, yes – exactly. And that, I think, is the point when it comes to ACORN – flood the system with as many registrations as possible, and hope that not all of the fraudulent ones are found out. Then your candidate stands a better change of “winning.” Senator Danforth referenced the recent NY Times article, “Group’s Tally of New Voters Was Vastly Overstated,” to prove this point. It seems ACORN claimed it had registered 1.3 million people. It turns out, though, that the number of legitimate registrations is – get this – 450,000. Yes, you read that right. WOW. As I said, the McCain camp is clear that ACORN is a source of problematic registrations and other fraudulent activities in a number of states (the Indiana Secretary of State is looking at racketeering charges against ACORN, particularly regarding their activity in Lake County, home of Gary, IN. You may recall what happened there during the Democratic Primary. Oh, and do I need to mention that it is next door to Chicago???)

But here was one of the other things I found to be of great interest on this call. Senator Danforth said that he and Senator Rudman sent a letter to the Obama campaign on September 15, 2008, asking them to work with the McCain campaign to insure that this election was not affected by voter fraud or suppression. The Obama Camp has not cooperated with them. Heck, they haven’t even returned Danforth’s calls! Oh, but wait – the Obama Camp DID say that to highlight voter fraud is tantamount to voter suppression – i.e., RACIST. Okay, that was my interpretation, not Senator Danforth’s, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the use of the term “voter suppression” implies keeping People of Color from exercising their right to vote. (If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. But I don’t think I am…) So, it is wrong for the McCain campaign to be concerned with voter fraud because somehow, in their Obama Logic, that means voter suppression. Uh huh, sure…

Senator Danforth said that if the Obama Campaign won’t work with the McCain campaign, they are hoping ACORN will. When questions were permitted, Mark Halverson asked why Senator Danforth thought ACORN would work with them when Obama would not. Senator Danforth said, “Hope springs eternal!” No kidding – he did. He elaborated on this point, saying that they reached out to the Obama Camp with the expectation that NO ONE wants voter fraud or suppression. If the Obama camp won’t work with them, then they hope that ACORN will turn over documents, and the names of the canvassers responsible for the fraudulent registrations (Hahahahaha!!! That’ll be the day…). Like he said, hope springs eternal that someone will do the right thing. Apparently, that will not be the Obama campaign, though.

Judging from this video, maybe Senator Danforth shouldn’t count too much on ACORN, either:

ACORN has not only have they submitted hundreds of thousands of fraudulent registrations, but apparently, from testimony given in a court case on 10/29 in Pennsylvania, an ACORN worker, Anita Moncrief, affirmed that they have quotas of 20 registrations a day, and that their income is dependent on these numbers. (There is MUCH more in this article, including that Ms. Moncrief’s job was to identify people who had maxed out on donations to Obama, and would steer them to “Project Vote,” a “sister” organization to ACORN. You may recall that Obama WORKED for Project Vote. A post on this article is forthcoming – stay tuned!.) Holy smokes, well, that certainly affirms what many have thought – the canvassers are paid by how many names they have, legitimate or not. As Senator Danforth said, when one’s income is dependent on something like this, it results in high volume, and low quality. True that!

The issue of the DOJ (see “Friends in High Places” videos) came up as well. According to Sen. Danforth, lawyers from the Civil Rights division were being sent out to trouble polling places around the country to insure there was no voter suppression or intimidation. BUT, lawyers from the CRIMINAL division, the ones who look into voter fraud, would NOT be sent out. The claim by the Civil Rights division is that lawyers from the Criminal division would “suppress” the vote. He said that they aren’t gonna appear in windbreakers or anything, “just attorneys making sure the process is working well.” All I know is that the DOJ is failing the very Constitution they have sworn to uphold by not insuring one person, one vote. I could have sworn that was their JOB. But hey, what do I know?!? In fact, the McCain campaign suggested that each camp have people go in teams to trouble polling areas – TOGETHER, that is. But the response from the Obama Camp was * crickets * .

The bottom line of this call was this: the McCain camp feels strongly that voter suppression/intimidation and fraud are reprehensible, and unacceptable – this is NOT a partisan issue, they contend. It affects everyone. They have tried to work with the Obama camp to no avail. And, they are working hard to make sure ACORN does not unfairly influence this election. I’m all for all of that – fair elections, no fraud, no tampering, no intimidation, no suppression, just the ability to fulfill our civic duty to vote for our choice without fear that our vote is meaningless. Too bad the Obama campaign isn’t willing to get on board with the McCain campaign on this.

UPDATE: Alert reader, Tzada, asked for a Fraud Alert Number. Here it is: 866-976-VOTE. This is he number for the RNC’s Voter Hotline. If you see ANY kind of fraudulent activity going on at your polling place, call them. Thanks for asking, Tzada!