Should Americans Be Looking Out For Acorn Scams In The 2010 Census?
By Julie Smith on February 9, 2010, 12:03 pmIt sounds like a wonderful organization. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now presents itself as a non-partisan association of community organizations to promote low- and middle-income populations. But recent controversies overshadow the organization, and the 2010 National Census is no exception.
Acorn Likely To Try To Pull Another Scam
ACORN volunteers primarily have been used in get out the vote efforts during national elections. But just how upstanding have these efforts been? In Washington state alone in 2007, several ACORN employees and volunteers were charged by state officials for over 1,700 fraudulent voter registrations. These were multiple registrations for the same person, registrations by people who were felons, or for people who didn’t have proof of residence and other infractions, like trying to register Mickey Mouse. In effect, ACORN was trying to get people to vote who were ineligible.
So what kind of trouble could ACORN find itself in if it decides to participate in the census? As the Census is the only criteria for the distribution of government grants and apportionment of House seats, it is obvious that an organization slanting the statistics one way or another can help out a great deal during elections. Even though ACORN won’t be directly involved in the counting, it will be involved in the training and publicizing of the Census.
One Day A Census. The Next Day Recruitment
Another side effect of ACORN participating in the 2010 Census is that it will put hundreds of ACORN workers in face-to-face contact with the census takers. These citizens can give ACORN volunteers information, which can then be re-purposed by ACORN into such things as mailing lists for get out the vote or membership activities. It is pretty obvious that ACORN views the 2010 Census as a literal data gold mine. And all this data is to be used to further ACORNs goals: more members and more government funding, all channeled into maintaining monster databases of potential allies, volunteers and programs.
ACORN is basically going to use the 2010 Census as free PR, except the US taxpayer is the one footing the bill. Examples of signs promoting the 2010 Census put out by ACORN predominantly feature the ACORN logo, and downplay the Census almost as an afterthought. The strategy in is is twofold. One, it gives the organization name recognition and two, gives the organization raw data at zero cost. All in all, it’s a pretty good return on investment from ACORN’s point of view.
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- 2010 Census Scam Alert: Is Your Identity Safe?
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- Election 2010: Dems, Repubs, Or Ind. – Saving A Sinking Ship
- Is Obama Using Excessive Presidential Power To Enact His Policies?
We will bury the acorn and no tree shall sprout