I'm not the smartest guy on the planet and I certainly wouldn't have the brains to organize and pull off a huge voter fraud scheme but I just don't get how the ACORN voter registration errors equate to voting fraud. Does John McCain actually think that someone will show up at a polling station and try to vote for Senator Obama as "Mickey Mouse"? And, wouldn't it be necessary for ACORN and the Obama campaign to enlist the help of hundreds, if not thousands, of people to go to the polls and actually vote using the phony registered names? I'm guessing it would have to work this way: Bill Smith (ACORN employee) completes 100 phony registration forms using the Raleigh, NC phonebook and mails them in. There are now 100 additional registered voters in Wake County, NC (what would happen if Bill picked my name from the book? I'm already registered). In order for voter fraud to occur someone would have to actually go to the specified polling place for these 100 "voters" and cast a ballot (or maybe an absentee ballot would be requested). Let's assume that Bill is not too smart and just starts at the beginning of the phone book and picks the first 100 names. Since those people are probably scattered all over Wake County, Bill (or a team of ACORN operatives) would have to go to a number of polling stations in order to cast the 100 phony ballots. It seems to me that in order for such a scheme to actually work and have an effect on the outcome of the election the scale of the fraud would have to be huge. The fact that the fraud would have to be large scale seems to make the probability of this happening very remote. Bottom line? There are some rogue ACORN employees who have tried to rip off the organization by generating phony registration forms. The McCain campaign and the RNC (with help, maybe, from the Department of Justice) are using this to their advantage and may be getting ready to perpetrate a fraud of their own.
The morning read for Friday, May 3
13 hours ago
4 comments:
There is a difference between "errors" and "voting fraud". There will be a dark cloud over the election if Obama is elected.
There will only be a dark cloud over Obama if McCain persists in his argument and if the DOJ continues to pursue this. Note that what has been uncovered are fraudulent registrations (that have been easily explained); we won't have voter fraud until Mickey Mouse casts his vote.
Great point BlueDog - that point that these are registrations, not actual votes is very important.
I think either way, the election will have a dark cloud over it.
Let's say McCain somehow comes back and wins. You think the black caucus and ACORN won't be asking for recounts in every state? Jesse Jackson and Sharpton will be holding hands in the streets.
Let's say Obama wins. You think the GOP won't be pointing at ACORN for fraudulently registering voters? What about all these associations of Obama's that have been off limits in the campaign? They will no longer be off limits. McCain may have his hands tied, but the party will not. With a superliberal majority in DC, the GOP will have nothing to lose.
Let's not forget what happen to Joe the plumber after he asked his question - he was smeared. So he owes $1000 in back taxes. Does that change Obama's answer? Obama's plans will cost jobs and hurt investment. The "rich" will just find more loopholes. Obama has already found his - he invests in tax-exempt investments. That is exactly what will happen, and he won't even get the tax revenues.
If he wants to help the middle class that pays little or no INCOME tax, he should move the payroll tax exeptions to the bottom of the wage bracket instead of the top. Move the ceiling up to $200k and move the floor up from zero to $30,000. That way people that pay no income tax won't get any back in the form of a handout. That ceiling should not exist anyway.
Swingtrader - If Joe the Plumber (who is neither Joe nor a plumber) didn't want the inevitable publicity he should have stayed in the background. He tried to trap Obama and Obama's reply was, I admit, weak and poorly thought out. If I was Obama I would have replied that the question couldn't be answered without knowing "Joe's" specific business situation. That's just the CPA in me coming out.
Also, each tax season I participate in the VITA tax preparation program and have seen, first hand, the people who benefit from various tax credits. The folks I tend to see are mostly poor (very poor) hispanics and most of them are paid as contractors (construction, house keeping). This means that their "employers" withhold no income taxes or payroll taxes and by the time the return is completed these poor people end up owing significant sums that they can't pay. You need to sit across the table from the people who receive refundable tax credits before you argue against the value of such payments.
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