Why Does the GOP Hate Democracy?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Why does a developed nation like the USA struggle so much at getting an election carried out?

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Comrade Snuggles
The problem isn't with ACORN per se, but in the fact that the people doing the drives are paid per registration, so the individuals have an incentive to sign up non-existent people.

That's not true, either. The registration workers are paid an hourly wage.

They are, however, asked to register at least 20 people each day as a part of their job. What we have in many of these flagged cases are lazy workers who, rather than actually do their job and look for people to register, just create false forms and submit those to meet their quota.

ACORN needs to work on its internal controls of their staff, but since state law usually demands they hand over every form, there's not much they can do after the fact except fire someone who is found to have submitted false forms.

If ACORN was not submitting all the forms received, no doubt the GOP would be accusing them of suppressing people registering as Republicans.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
Why does a developed nation like the USA struggle so much at getting an election carried out?

Obesity.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Because they don't believe the starting line up from the Dallas Cowboys should register to vote in Nevada without living there?

Remember though, that was not voter fraud. It was registration fraud, and the folks being defrauded were the folks at ACORN. They were the ones who were paying the yokels registering the Cowboys, the dead people, etc.

There is virtually no chance of any of the dead people or Dallas Cowboys showing up in Nevada and trying to vote, especially because they don't know they've been registered there.

This is a tempest in a teapot.

[Boris Godunov]

I'd like to see an actual, documented case of an individual being convicted of actual voter fraud, meaning that they voted using a fraudulent registration. My understanding is that such instances are virtually nonexistant, if not actually nonexistant.

[Verto]

My understanding of the ACORN situation, is that ACORN is required in some, or maybe all, states to submit all registration forms, even ones they believe are bogus, or incomplete. So ACORN submitted them, after flagging them with some sort of notice attached to the suspect forms.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
Why does a developed nation like the USA struggle so much at getting an election carried out?

Because we're more open than any other nation about these sorts of things. If you seriously believe that abuse of power is not a problem ANYWHERE, you are naive beyond reasonability.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Comrade Snuggles
Keep in mind that in most states, ACORN is prohibited by law from refusing to turn in even blatantly false forms like the one in Whoha's linked article.

Actually they are claiming that that one didn't come from them, since they stamped it and all.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
Why does a developed nation like the USA struggle so much at getting an election carried out?

Because we're not allowed to simply shoot the fraudsters so the fraudsters keep doing this every election.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Whoha
Actually they are claiming that that one didn't come from them, since they stamped it and all.

Actually, they are claiming they don't think that one came from them, since they screen the registrations.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


Remember though, that was not voter fraud. It was registration fraud,...

That's kind of a lame defense. It makes me wanna throttle Alan Colms everytime he mindlessly repeats that tired line. Why falsely register (a crime) especially in States without Voter ID if you aren't planning on actually voting?

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
That's kind of a lame defense. It makes me wanna throttle Alan Colms everytime he mindlessly repeats that tired line. Why falsely register (a crime) especially in States without Voter ID if you aren't planning on actually voting?

Uh, as was explained, the problem was of workers turning in fraudulent registrations so they could meet their daily quotas. There is no evidence that any of the applications were turned in with the intent to commit voter fraud in November.

Again, can you provide documented cases of anyone being convicted of voting under a fraudulent registration?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Again, can you provide documented cases of anyone being convicted of voting under a fraudulent registration?

Chicago?

[The Emperor Fabulous]

See, this whole ACORN thing is ridiculous.

Pollsters, registrars, market researchers, etc, all hire people to collect data. Problem is, they aren't paid hourly, they are paid by quota. The more registrations/surveys collected, the more the collector makes.

Perfect example: I did market research at movie theaters for Nielsen Ratings. We would ask people waiting to see their movies if they would check out a trailer/commercial/product placement to get their responses. Trouble is, at $4/survey, there was no way any of us (3 at a time, plus the supervisor - me or my manager) could make more than 8 bucks an hour if we only stuck to the people we actually talked to. So we padded our results with phonies.

Trouble is, we usually stuck to people we knew because Nielsen would do random checks. We usually got away with it even if we faked it though. However, many people got fired for being caught too many times.

Here, you have a group like ACORN, who is required BY LAW to give every single registration, good or bad, so that they may be verified. These aren't fake or dead people who will vote, they are false registrations so the registrar can make more cash. There is a distinct separation.

The fact that ACORN has to give all registrations is an example of a strong check and balance, much stronger than Nielsen had.

The fact that this is even an issue is utterly moronic. This is not voter fraud. Not a one of these fake registrations has yet voted.

[LotC]

You USians should try having non-partisan electoral agencies like real democracies do. Is non-partisan even a word down there?