There are currently two major scandals revolving around voting in the election, one being the ACORN scandal and the other vote-suppression.
ACORN, The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a non-profit with a goal of increasing voter registration. However, ACORN has been accused of fraudulent voter registration. ACORN recruits new voters, however, they may have been submitting false registration forms. Technically, people could vote multiple times--using their own name and registration, as well as other names they registered as through ACORN. However, we are learning that it would not be easy to vote multiple times and it is not likely. ACORN also reports suspicious forms to the government; they are required to by law.
The other voting scandal would be vote-suppression. I think this can almost be seen as a harsh campaign strategy. Vote-suppression is basically when voting is made so difficult or intimidating for certain areas and demographics, that those people may be pushed to skip voting altogether. If done on purpose, it can be done by neglecting to set up polling booths in certain areas to make voting inaccessible to some people. Vote-suppression has also been exemplified in the past by the Jim Crow Laws. They made voting basically impossible to obtain. Vote-suppression today can be seen in certain demographics. For example, there could be Republican-driven suppression in an area made mostly of Democrats because the outcome is predicted and Republicans would want to change it. The same could go for Democrats in areas with mostly Republicans. It basically denies people of their right to vote.
One thing that I noticed when reading about the ACORN scandal and vote-supression was one big difference. ACORN aims to get more and more people to vote, while with vote-suppression, people could be denied their one chance of voting. It's interesting to me and I wonder if ACORN goes out to certain areas in hopes of registering certain demographics to increase the number of votes for a desired outcome. Yet, vote-suppression also seems to occur within certain demographics, such as low-income neighborhoods or college students. Vote-suppression has been around for awhile now, as we have seen with the Jim Crow Laws, which made voting impossible for blacks. It doesn't seem fair; I thought each person had the right to one vote, no more and no less.
^ A video from ACORN's website, which says that McCain has been attacking the organization simply as a campaign tactic. It is biased, being from ACORN themselves, but it explains what would happen after a false registration and they say it would in no way effect the election.
Sources:
ACORN, The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a non-profit with a goal of increasing voter registration. However, ACORN has been accused of fraudulent voter registration. ACORN recruits new voters, however, they may have been submitting false registration forms. Technically, people could vote multiple times--using their own name and registration, as well as other names they registered as through ACORN. However, we are learning that it would not be easy to vote multiple times and it is not likely. ACORN also reports suspicious forms to the government; they are required to by law.
The other voting scandal would be vote-suppression. I think this can almost be seen as a harsh campaign strategy. Vote-suppression is basically when voting is made so difficult or intimidating for certain areas and demographics, that those people may be pushed to skip voting altogether. If done on purpose, it can be done by neglecting to set up polling booths in certain areas to make voting inaccessible to some people. Vote-suppression has also been exemplified in the past by the Jim Crow Laws. They made voting basically impossible to obtain. Vote-suppression today can be seen in certain demographics. For example, there could be Republican-driven suppression in an area made mostly of Democrats because the outcome is predicted and Republicans would want to change it. The same could go for Democrats in areas with mostly Republicans. It basically denies people of their right to vote.
One thing that I noticed when reading about the ACORN scandal and vote-supression was one big difference. ACORN aims to get more and more people to vote, while with vote-suppression, people could be denied their one chance of voting. It's interesting to me and I wonder if ACORN goes out to certain areas in hopes of registering certain demographics to increase the number of votes for a desired outcome. Yet, vote-suppression also seems to occur within certain demographics, such as low-income neighborhoods or college students. Vote-suppression has been around for awhile now, as we have seen with the Jim Crow Laws, which made voting impossible for blacks. It doesn't seem fair; I thought each person had the right to one vote, no more and no less.
^ A video from ACORN's website, which says that McCain has been attacking the organization simply as a campaign tactic. It is biased, being from ACORN themselves, but it explains what would happen after a false registration and they say it would in no way effect the election.
Sources:
- The New York Times, "The Acorn Story", Published October 16, 2008, Accessed October 28, 2008.
- The Wall Street Journal Online, "Justice and Vote Fraud", Published October 27, 2008, Accessed October 28, 2008.
- The Miami Herald, "Republicans, ACORN fued over suspicious voter cards", Marc Caputo, Published September 25, 2008, Accessed October 28, 2008.
- The New York Times, "States' Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal", Ian Urbina, Published October 8, 2008, Accessed October 28, 2008.
- The American Center for Voting Rights, "Incidents of Voter Intimidation and Suppression", Accessed October 28, 2008.
- ACORN, Accessed October 30, 2008.
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