On Monday, a week and a day before the election, we’re going to look at the still swirling controversy over the integrity of the vote, from the right and the left. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will join us. He’s just written, with Greg Palast, a new piece for Rolling Stone charging the GOP with a campaign to “deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots.” Conservative Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund will also join us. He wrote the 2004 book “Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy” and has been writing recently about investigations into Acorn’s voter registration drives. To help us sort it all out we’ll have election law expert Nathaniel Persily of Columbia University.
The Acorn controversy has been hot enough, but it may only get hotter. As The New York Times reported today in a front-page story:
… the disclosure on Thursday that 30 percent of Acorn’s registrations were faulty was described by Republicans as further proof of what they said was Acorn’s effort to tilt the election unfairly….
Democrats and officials with Acorn accuse Republicans of trying to manufacture a controversy to deflect attention from alleged voter suppression activities in several states. Election officials and experts say there is little chance that significant numbers of supporters of either party would actually try to vote through a fraudulent registration.
Over the last few weeks, the Acorn registration drive has become a flash point in the campaign when the flood of new voter registrations prompted complaints from election officials about the high number of improper submissions. State and local officials have begun investigations into possible fraudulent activity in at least 10 states.
And even setting aside the highly charged questions of fraud and suppression, all it could take is a snafu in a closely fought battleground state to throw the election into the courts, as the WSJ noted today.
So tune in and join the conversation. What are you making of all this? Do you have confidence in the voting process itself? Are these accusations, on both sides, overblown? Or is the vigilance called for?
See you Monday.
There have been MANY People actually prosecuted for
fixing elections in recent times! That’s in a
Republican world – with a Republican “fixed” system
to begin with. This IDEA that Tom is tossing around
like he is being Objective somehow, stares right past
this fact. Election tampering is a FACT not a question
to knocked around as political gaming. Just Google it.
I believe the last two elections have been proven to
be fraudulent.
Acorn is BLAMELESS! There just is not the proof that
Acorn is placing a burden on the system or that anyone
is voting twice as a result of their activity. They
are serving the system if you think registering
people to vote is advantages to Democracy.
Where’s the proof! They catch voter fraud! There are
Posted by Ernie, on October 27th, 2008 at 10:58 AM100,000s of Democratic voters disadvantaged NOT
Republican! Why the imbalance?
Thank you so much for covering this subject in depth. People need to know at least there is some controversy on both sides. Bev Harris and her cohorts have worked tirelessly to follow these issues (see blackbox voting.com) Mark Crispin Miller also has studied the issue of voter suppression and disenfranchisement, and was a guest on Bill Moyers a week ago. Thank you again.
Posted by Kristen Day, on October 27th, 2008 at 11:03 AMThere is always controversy. An opionion on both sides.
Posted by Ernie, on October 27th, 2008 at 11:18 AMIt’s easy enough to create. “The world is flat!” “No it
isn’t!” There you go. First rule in the Rights book of
how to argue; Just contradict. The balanced looking
equation makes it look 50/50 when it’s really 99/1.
Isn’t that how you get to – “Fair And Balanced”?
The Repubs have moved to another level of criminality in their desperate attempt to purge voters, with Sen. Minority Leader Cong. Boehner (Delay’s rt hand vermin) asking Bush to order AG Mukasey to order Ohio Sec State Jennifer Brunner to match voter’s registrations with SS or Drivers License numbers. This was subject of a suit by the local Repubs, and some Ohio court went along with them. But the SUPREME COURT voided that decision and said she did not have to do the notoriously inaccurate procedure (over 10% -200,000 unmatching for various reasons that have nothing to do with fraud).
So this cartoon President is now trying to jimmy a third election with the crudest of illegal partisan stunts- ignoring an applicable SC decision, and send the top cop out to disenfranchise voters. There should be riots and efigy burning all over America over this. There is a chance Mukasey will say “no thanks” to Bush’s contemptible order. Should have impeached and removed Bush + Cheney 5 years ago- if it had been possible.
Posted by michael hammerschlag, on October 27th, 2008 at 11:37 AM