A group of concerned squirrels is now spreading the word for the GOP about rampant voter registration fraud and impending voter fraud by ACORN.
They showed up at CBS' "Early Show" this morning, crashing Harry Smith's shot.
In addition to the savvy guerrilla marketing, the Squirrels have their own blog. And, the GOP is bolstering the message with a new site, ObamaAcornTree.com, which illustrates Obama's many connections to the group, including an endorsement from ACORN's political arm, numerous grants he steered to them throughout his career, and the $800,000 his campaign paid ACORN for get-out-the-vote efforts (and then tried to conceal in FEC reports).
I'm in North Carolina this week, where the voter-fraud message has made some inroads with voters. At an event for Sen. Elizabeth Dole in Democratic-leaning Richmond County yesterday, Dole had time for about five questions from voters, and two of them were about voter fraud.
If you think ACORN has caused trouble at this point, just remember the potential for mischief once GOTV gets underway. The state of North Carolina's General Assembly passed a same-day registration bill in 2007, which allows citizens to walk into polling places, register in person, and cast a ballot on the same day starting tomorrow and up to three days before Election Day.
Up until last year, a voter had to register 25 days in advance of the election. The new law requires one of several types of identification:
* A North Carolina driver's license with current address
* A utility bill with name and current address
o A telephone or mobile phone bill
o An electric or gas bill
o A cable television bill
o A water or sewage bill
* A document with name and current address from a local, state, or U.S. government agency, such as:
o A passport
o A government-issued photo ID
o U.S. military ID
o A license to hunt, fish, own a gun, etc.
o A property or other tax bill
o Automotive or vehicle registration
o Certified documentation of naturalization
o A public housing or Social Service Agency document
o A check, invoice, or letter from a government agency
o A birth certificate
* A student photo ID along with a document from the school showing the student's name and current address
* A paycheck or paycheck stub from an employer or a W-2 statement
* A bank statement or bank-issued credit card statement
I talked to a woman yesterday who trained to be a poll watcher, who said she asked how recent the utility bill had to be to be valid, and was told the law didn't specify. A quick read of the bill suggests that's true.
"What do you think? Three months?," she posited. Her instructor said that sounded reasonable.
"Then, doesn't that mean someone could easily have moved to Virginia, use old documentation in North Carolina, and vote in both states," she asked.
The instructor had to concede that was probably the case. I'm reading up on same-day registration here, but it seems clear that at the very least, the unclear identification requirements would cause problems for poll-watchers, even if ACORN weren't trying anything squirrelly.
