McCain's Warning on Voter Fraud Gets Details Wrong: Ann Woolner

Phantom Voters

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has a nasty habit of hiring day workers who register thousands of phantom voters, often in swing states. ACORN denies responsibility, insisting it culls for bogus names, fires whoever turned them in and flags any irregularities to authorities.

If you doubt ACORN's story and worry that fake registrations can lead to false voting, I don't blame you. But you will probably strike out if you try to find phony votes that were actually cast. Officials verify registrations before accepting them.

Whatever you make of ACORN, don't let its misdeeds blind you to the rest of the picture.

Consider Nathan Sproul, former Republican Party chief for Arizona, who ran a multistate voter drive in 2004. Some of his former employees have told reporters that his group destroyed registration forms filled out by Democrats, fired canvassers who turned them in and submitted to state authorities only the registrations of those who said they were Republicans. Sproul denied the allegations.

Oregon Probe

An Oregon investigation into Sproul's 2004 operation there confirmed ``instances of wrongdoing'' but found insufficient evidence to prosecute, according to the state's Justice Department.

Bad as it is to submit fake registrations, no harm is done unless one of those made-up registrants gets approved by the state and then shows up at the polls and votes.

``Keep in mind with these stories about potentially bad registrations, they don't equal bad votes,'' says Terri Enns, a senior fellow at Election Law @ Moritz, out of Ohio State University.

But if you register voters and then shred their registration forms because they support the wrong candidate, you rob legitimate voters of their ballots in an attempt to tilt the election result.

Ancient history, you say? This year Sproul has a new group which the Republican Party and the McCain campaign have hired for voter drives.

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