Let's Clear This Up

I've been trapped in deposition hell for a few days, but am now finally free. The Lions are still awful, the last debate went well, and I'm going to Mexico in 2 days.

But let's talk about voter fraud.

That bastion of community activism, ACORN, has been fraudulently registering voters for the general election this year. That's not cool, but let's review the different between registration fraud and voter fraud.

So far, nobody besides ACORN has been defrauded. They (improperly) paid volunteers for registrations, and thus got screwed when it turned out the registrations they paid for were not valid. But none of the fake registrants--including Bugs Bunny and Indiana Jones--will be showing up to vote on election day.

You see, registration fraud only becomes actual voter fraud when those persons who have filed false registrations show up to vote (multiple times, in theory). Since it's going to be tough to convince a poll worker that your name really is "Mickey Mouse" it is unlikely that that will happen with any of these registrations. No voter fraud.

Voter fraud is a big boogeyman in politics, especially in right wing circles. It preys on the "us and them" mentality that super conservatives often embrace. It conjures visions of a horde of liberals and minorities roaming the countryside come election day, voting dozens of times and pushing the Democrats into power.

But in the last few decades, despite the cries of "fraud" by BOTH parties, there has been little evidence that it has actually occurred. And when they do arise--Ohio in 2004, for example--it's not the liberals or minorities that are accused of perpetrating the fraud.

ACORN acted stupidly. But they haven't damaged our democracy, as a clearly out-of-his-mind McCain stated last night. They've damaged themselves and their credibility. But they can't really touch Obama on this, as even McCain was as recently as 2006 a supporter of the organization. Obama's legal work in the 90's is grasping at... well not even straws. Air.