ACORN registered over a million new voters for the coming election. That's their real crime. Charges of fraud from the GOP is just the GOP's standard operating procedure.
It's all about voter suppression. And in that spirit, here's a blast from the past -- 1964 to be exact -- on the GOP's effort to "discourage" over a million people from voting called "Operation Eagle Eye":
Democrats charged yesterday that Republican organizations across the country were preparing to 'intimidate' Negro and other low-income voters through an aggressive Election Day strategy of challenges at polling places.
Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota, the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate, denounced the Republican "Operation Eagle Eye" as an indication that the GOP leadership was determined to 'harass those who are going to vote.'
"It should be called Operation Evil Eye," Senator Humphrey declared in Los Angeles.
more after the jump...
35 Cities Selected
'Operation Eagle Eye" is the Republican poll-watching campaign under which GOP officials say they will deploy 100,000 trained Republican workers at polling places in 35 large cities.
According to Charles R. Barr, national director of 'Operation Eagle Eye', these observers expect to successfully challenge or to discourage from voting 1,250,000 persons."
You get the usual denials from the republicans -- they're only looking for "tombstone" or "vacant lot" voters. The article goes on to discuss a number of cities targeted by the program including Washington DC:
Washington, DC. -- Republican City Chairman Carl L. Shippley announced that 40 uniformed private detectives and more than 600 Republican volunteer workers would man the city's 91 polling places "three at a time on three shifts." He said that challenges would be directed to "from 5 to 10 percent of the voters" in this area who are voting for the first time in a Presidential election.
Mr. Shipley had said earlier that the Republican poll watchers would keep an eye out for "people who look like they don't belong in the community or are not the kind of people who would register and vote.
Democrats in the Capital chaged that he meant Negroes."
"Democrats Charge G.O.P. Poll Watch Today Will Harass the Negroes and the Poor; REPUBLICANS SAY HONESTY IS GOAL Assert 100,000 Sentinels in 35 Cities Will Seek Only to Avert Voting Fraud", N.Y. TIMES, Nov. 3, 1964.
For more information, see this post by Rick Perlstein.