Legitimate Voters Getting Bumped Off the Rolls

The New York Times has a piece today about states that may be improperly removing registered voters in advance of the election. The article does not allege deliberate fraud in these cases. But it brings to the forefront the disturbing electoral mess we've seen in previous years.

Although California may not be targeted as aggressively by practices like push polls and voter caging, it behooves all of us to have accurate information in the context of this most critical election.

In addition to the potential illegality of the actions cited in the New York Times article, some conservative media outlets are fingering ACORN and alleging voter fraud. ACORN, as you may know, is the organization responsible for highly successful registration drives. ACORN is also often labeled as "radical" by conservative commentators.

These conservative reports don't present the entire story. And these reports do not address the Diebold and electronic voting machine issues which occurred in 2004, or the reports of voter caging and other voter discrepancies, as documented in the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. article below.

The negative claims about Acorn are being challenged by sites like bradblog.com -- by Brad Friedman who has been consistently covering voter fraud issues. The controversy is far too nuanced and complex for this post, but there is information at his blog, and additional references below.

• You may be familiar with investigative journalist Greg Palast. His website has numerous articles and references on voter fraud.
• Back in 2006, Robert Kennedy, Jr. penned an article for Rolling Stone, discussing the serious voter issues encountered in the previous election.
• Black Box Voting has been a watchdog in previous elections, and the website has documented accounts of previous voting problems.
• The film, Stealing America, addresses these voter fraud issues. It screened recently in San Francisco and is available on DVD.