ACORN - Just another scandal that has nothing to do with Barack Obama... Yeah, right.

                                                                       Picture Source: Social Policy

After a long and proud history of voter fraud, ACORN is finally getting the publicity it deserves. Reports of registering everyone from dead people to Mickey Mouse to the Dallas Cowboys' starting line-up, of registering people with non-existent addresses and social security numbers, and of registering the same person over 70 times, are coming in all over the country. Of course, Barack Obama is desperately trying to distance himself from this organization. He would like us to believe that he's never had anything to do with ACORN.

Let's take a closer look.

What the Obama Campaign is saying:

When Barack Obama ran a Project Vote voter registration drive in Chicago in 1992, "ACORN was not part of Project Vote..." - Fight the Smears

Fact

Project vote was closely tied to ACORN, even in 1992 when Obama ran the Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois.

Sources

"Project VOTE delivered 50,000 newly registered voters in that campaign (ACORN delivered about 5000 of them.) ” - Social Policy

"Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it...” - Obama’s Campaign Website

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What the Obama Campaign is saying:

"Barack was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity." - Fight the Smears - Oct 7, 2008

Note: The Obama campaign has very recently changed the wording to reflect the fact that he did, in fact, train ACORN employees and that he did work for ACORN in the capacity of lawyer. He was just never an official employee of ACORN.

It now reads, "ACORN never hired Obama as a trainer, organizer, or any type of employee." - Fight the Smears - current

Fact

Barack Obama represented ACORN in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois; he also ran ACORN leadership training sessions.

Source

“When he returned from law school, we asked him to help us with a lawsuit to challenge the state of Illinois' refusal to abide by the National Voting Rights Act, also known as motor voter...Since then, we have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year…” - Social Policy

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What else do we know about ACORN and Barack Obama?

Fact

The ACORN Political Action Committee has officially endorsed Obama.

Source

"ACORN’s Political Action Committee today announced that it has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for President." -Obama’s Campaign Website

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Fact

In 2001, with Barack Obama and Bill Ayers serving on its board, the Woods Fund of Chicago awarded ACORN a $75,000 grant.

Source

Woods Fund of Chicago tax form, p. 38

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Fact

Obama's presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an ACORN affiliate and reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that this money was for activities such as polling, event staging, sound, lighting, etc. The campaign has now been forced to amend the FEC report to show that the payment was actually for get-out-the-vote activities.

Source

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

No, we shouldn't connect Barack Obama with ACORN in any way. That would be using smear tactics.