Is There A "Quick Facts" Sheet About ACORN's Voter Registration Work?

Absolutely! Here it is. (Downloadable version here.)

ACORN’S VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVE

ACORN members can be very proud of the patriotic work they have done by helping more than 1.3 million citizens apply to become registered voters in 2007 and 2008.

ACORN helps the people register who most need to make their voices heard in this election: African Americans, Latinos, low-income citizens, and youth.

Sen. John McCain, who has recently attacked ACORN, should make no mistake—the many, many citizens ACORN has helped register are very real and many of them will be coming out to vote next month.

• McCain would be better off if he spent more time appealing for the support of these new voters than attacking the community organization that helped them register to vote.

ACORN’s Quality Control system works
ACORN has dedicated Quality Control staff which calls the person listed on every card to verify information.

• ACORN alerts election officials whenever its Quality Control staff find a card that appears to be a duplicate or problematic.
• In most states, the law requires that every signed card be turned into election officials, even if it is fake or incomplete.
• ACORN is now being attacked by partisan officials over problematic cards that ACORN itself pointed out, in writing, to election officials.

ACORN employed thousands of part-time canvassers to work on its voter registration drives, and most of these individuals did a great job.  

• In the relatively few cases where some canvassers have turned in bad voter registration cards, there has never been any evidence that so-called “voter fraud” was the motive.
• As these cases prove, it is extraordinarily difficult to falsely register to vote, and fraudulent voting by individuals is extremely rare.
• Rather, these cases appear to be nothing more than former part-time workers trying to get paid for doing work they didn’t do—like a store clerk shoplifting from his or her employer.

Behind the partisan attacks
The goals of the people orchestrating partisan attacks against are to distract ACORN from helping people vote and to justify massive voter suppression.

In 2004 and 2006, attacks against voter registration drives were orchestrated by political forces that have since been exposed by the U.S. Attorneygate scandal to have been working in conjunction with a politicized Department of Justice to push a partisan agenda of voter suppression.

In 2008, Republican operatives have already:

• Tried to prevent Ohio from registering voters at its early voting sites
• Admitted plans to use foreclosure notices to challenge thousands of voters in Michigan
• Gone to court to try to block early voting in Lake County, Indiana

ACORN and its 400,000+ member families will not be intimidated. ACORN is committed to empowering local low- and moderate-income residents by bringing them into the democratic process and ensuring that they have a say in the issues that affect them most.