The ACORN scandal - a former organizer speaks out

I worked for ACORN in 2004 during the Presidential election. I left, with mixed feelings, after the election.

So I have been especially interested, and dismayed, by the latest scandal.

I am saddened by the fact that many people will not take the time to learn more about ACORN. This so called "expose" will be the only exposure they have to an organization that has been working on behalf of the poor and powerless for more than 30 years.

What Does ACORN do?

ACORN started out in the 1970s, as "a movement that would unite races, join neighborhoods and unify the interests and efforts of low- and moderate- income people wherever they lived or worked."

The premise is simple: enter a poor community, find out what problems the residents have, and bring them together to address those problems. The process isn't simply solving the problems of poor people - it's empowering them, uniting powerless individuals into a powerful, organization - much like a worker's union. Individuals from the community are given leadership roles and trained to become advocates for themselves and their community. It is not uncommon for an ACORN member to go from being on welfare to sitting on their city councils.

ACORN has offices in 41 states, and most major cities in the US. Since the early days, they have expanded their operations from the community organizing model described above into electoral organizing, and tax, financial, and housing advising.

Voter Fraud and ACORN

Acorn and a sister organization, Project Vote, work to register low income voters and get them out to the polls on election day.

Much of the work I did for ACORN was in this arena - and even in 2004, they were plagued by allegations of vote fraud. Critics pointed to the actions of a few temporary employees within the organization and cried conspiracy and corruption at the highest levels.

Of course, even if the voter registrations were intentionally fraudulent (full story on that below), it would be nearly impossible to turn this into actual vote fraud:

"Our accusers not only fail to provide any evidence, they fail to suggest a motive: there is virtually no chance anyone would be able to vote fraudulently, so there is no reason to deliberately submit phony registrations. ACORN is committed to ensuring that the greatest possible numbers of people are registered."

To some extent, ACORN set itself up for these problems. The common practice was to hire anyone who walked in off the street and pay them to register voters. Each employee had a minimum number of cards to turn in to get paid.

You figure it out.

It's inescapable that people would game this system, filling out voter registration cards with fake names and turning them in for a payment.

Of course, there were also people paid by ACORN to sit and go through all the cards every night and flag the suspicious ones. And of course, ACORN is required by law to turn in all voter registration cards received, falsified or not. ACORN flagged the fraudulent ones, but often found itself under fire weeks later by partisan election officials for turning in the same cards they were required by law to turn in!

We saw a rerun of this sad story in 2008, with conservatives making unsubstantiated allegations and conservative media jumping all over those same allegations. It's funny to me that the 2000 election results in Florida didn't provoke the same rage and cries of conspiracy as did Obama's overwhelming victory both in the popular vote and the electoral college. But that's another story.

The really sad thing is, ACORN has been a powerful ally to poor people. Some of their campaigns include fighting predatory lending, corrupt landlords, and rising utility rates.

Next Hub - I'll address the ACORN "Sting"