Election Unspun Oct 31 - Ballot Initititives - How Will Americans Vote?

It's not just a new President that will be picked by voters next Tuesday, many around the country will be voting on ballot initiatives as well. Currently, there are 153 measures on ballots across the US, 61 of these are citizen petitions and they cover a wide range of topics - ending affirmative action, banning abortion, constitutional bans on same sex marriage to name a few. Election Unspun producer Karen Miller spoke with Kristina Wilfore, the Executive Director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.

FEATURE

While Republicans continue to warn of voter fraud, the McCain-Palin Campaign hired a Republican firm with a history of  misrepresenting itself and potentially disenfranchising Democrats, to carry out voter registration. Judith Siers-Poisson and Diane Farsetta of PR Watch dot org report.

"Voter Fraud, Nathan Sproul and the McCain-Palin Campaign"
During the last presidential debate, Republican candidate John McCain claimed that ACORN, which organizes in low-income communities, "is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."  Although McCain spoke at an ACORN event as recently as 2006, Republicans have long criticized the group.  ACORN workers have registered to vote 1.3 million people of color and low-income people this year -- people who tend to vote for Democrats.

But McCain's concerns are undermined by reports that his campaign, along with the California Republican Party and Republican National Committee, paid a firm accused of serious registration fraud to sign up new voters.  In June 2008, the campaign retained Lincoln Strategy Group $175,000, to register voters.  The firm's managing partner is Nathan Sproul, the former head of the Arizona Republican Party.

In 2004, Sproul's firm (then named Sproul & Associates) carried out controversial voter registration drives in several swing states.  The firm told its employees to hide the fact that they were working for the Republican Party.  It instructed employees to approach people by telling them they were conducting a poll.  If the person's answers suggested she or he was Republican, employees were supposed to register them.  If the person seemed to lean Democratic, employees were told to walk away.  One former employee said the firm even destroyed voter registration forms for Democrats.