The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is under attack for submitting fraudulent voter registration applications. But what the accusers don’t tell you is that by law ACORN is required to submit all forms gathered. ACORN flags those which look suspicious, but election officials feign that ACORN is trying to sneak them through.

So the GOP is pointing the finger at the organization that is itself the victim defrauded by dubiously motivated contractors. Most important, even as this slander has been leveled at ACORN for phony registration forms during past elections, no vote fraud has ultimately ever occurred. This is in contrast to the real election fraud being perpetrated by partisan election officials purging the voter roles in Swing States. The Republicans are fabricating accusations against ACORN to distract journalists from reporting the far larger, and completely effective disenfranchisement of working class voters.

Here are details submitted in ACORN’s own defense:

Fact: ACORN has implemented the most sophisticated quality-control system in the voter engagement field but in almost every state we are required to turn in ALL completed applications, even the ones we know to be problematic.

Fact: ACORN flags in writing incomplete, problem, or suspicious cards when we turn them in,. Unfortunately, some of these same officials then come back weeks or months later and accuse us of deliberately turning in phony cards. In many cases, we can actually prove that these are the same cards we called to their attention.

Fact: Our canvassers are paid by the hour, not by the card . ACORN has a zero-tolerance policy for deliberately falsifying registrations, and in the cases where our internal quality controls have identified this happening we have fired the workers involved and turned them in to election officials and law-enforcement.

Fact: No criminal charges related to voter registration have ever been brought against ACORN or partner organizations. Convictions against individual former ACORN workers have been accomplished with our full cooperation, using the evidence obtained through our quality control and verification processes — evidence which in most cases WE called to the attention of authorities

Fact: Most election officials have recognized ACORN’s good work and praised our quality control systems. Even in the cities where election officials have complained about ACORN, the applications in question represent less than 1% of the thousands and thousands of registrations ACORN has collected.

Fact: Our accusers not only fail to provide any evidence, they fail to suggest a motive: there is virtually no chance anyone would be able to vote fraudulently, so there is no reason to deliberately submit phony registrations. ACORN is committed to ensuring that the greatest possible numbers of people are registered.