I have always disliked the "goo-goo" types. That stands for good government, the people who want everybody to vote. I don't want the uninformed to vote because either they will vote the familiar name or they will vote the way somebody tells them to vote. The goo-goo crowd must be in seventh heaven because in Indianapolis 105% of the voting age population is eligible to vote. Thanks to the so-called nonpartisan Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a great many people who are dead, invented or just plain silly have registered. On FOX News one ACORN representative admitted that she tells everyone whom she signs up to vote for Senator Barack Hussein Obama. Jeanne MacIntosh of the New York Post got one 19-year old to admit he had registered 72 times in precincts all over Ohio. What was in it for him? Cash and cigarettes. That is a felony in Ohio. But what the heck, registered to vote in Ohio are Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy and Jive Turkey, according to the Wall Street Journal. In Nevada, where the FBI raided ACORN offices, the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys is registered to vote.
ACORN has registered more than three million new voters since Senator John Forbes Kerry was defeated by President George W. Bush in 2004. That was a very close election. Another three million votes and in a close election these votes probably will make the difference.
Currently ACORN is under investigation in Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All but Connecticut are closely contested states.
In some states new voters are put aside until their bona fides can be ascertained. In others there is no such provision. The Obama campaign has 30,000 lawyers ready to challenge the election in any close state. The McCain campaign has 5,000 lawyers for the same purpose. It used to be that in a very few places-Chicago comes to mind-there were sometimes irregularities but for the most part voting was treated as a sacred right of every American. The old story comes to mind of a stranger finding a kid sitting on a curb in Chicago crying his eyes out. The man tried to console the boy but the boy wouldn't stop crying. "There, there, nothing could be that bad," the man sad to the boy. "Yes it can. My daddy died three years ago and I hear he came back to life to vote and he didn't even bother to say 'hi' to me," said the boy.
Jokes like that in the past could be applied to a very few places with political machines. Now thanks to ACORN, we will be able to tell that joke all over America. Only it isn't funny. The entire political process is in jeopardy. Some elected officials of both parties have taken these fraud charges seriously. Others are being very partisan. In Ohio, for example, a United States District Court ruled that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner was violating Ohio law by refusing to allow county election boards to verify the identities of voters registered by ACORN. She appealed to the United States Court of Appeals but the full court confirmed the District Court's early ruling. The Attorney General of Ohio has filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, so the matter is not settled.
As of this writing a landslide is building for Senator Obama. If the race were to tighten during the remaining days, it could be months before legitimate votes are confirmed and a winner is declared. Think of Florida in 2000 and then multiply by a dozen. So unless there is a landslide due principally to ACORN's activities the American political process, once the envy of the world, will be shattered.