ACORN's Role in the Census

Michele Bachmann | March 18, 2009 12:41 PM

While the dicentennial census is intended to be a decidedly non-partisan activity – and has been even before this new “post-partisan” world, much concern has been raised of-late over the infamous ACORN's new role in the process.

According to a Fox News report:

"The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now [ACORN] signed on as a national partner with the U.S. Census Bureau in February 2009 to assist with the recruitment of the 1.4 million temporary workers needed to go door-to-door to count every person in the United States -- currently believed to be more than 306 million people.

"ACORN, which claims to be a non-partisan grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people, came under fire in 2007 when Washington State filed felony charges against several paid ACORN employees and supervisors for more than 1,700 fraudulent voter registrations. In March 2008, an ACORN worker in Pennsylvania was sentenced for making 29 phony voter registration forms. The group's activities were frequently questioned in the 2008 presidential election."

While ACORN maintains its non-partisan tax status, it's no secret that they are a strong ally of the Democrat Party. The census is used to determine distribution of taxpayer money through formula grants and more, as well as the apportionment of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, so a skewed count can have clear ramifications for the political make-up of our federal legislative body.

Partisan politics must not be an issue in compiling the results of our 2010 census, and I hope the necessary safeguards are in place to crackdown hard on any violations that may arise throughout the process.