McCain campaign recommends sending criminal lawyers to swing states

John Danforth, former U.S. Senator and Co-Chair of the McCain-Palin Honest and Open Election Committee, described the conduct of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) as “particularly outrageous,” and offered recommendations for a fair election. These included having ACORN submit their database to election authorities, reporting canvassers who turned in false information, and having the Department of Justice send criminal lawyers along with the initially planned civil rights lawyers to battleground states.

“Some say ‘well, the presence of lawyers throughout the country is itself intimidation’. We don’t understand how it can be viewed as intimidation if lawyers from the criminal division show up, but not when lawyers from the civil division showed up,” said Danforth during a McCain-Palin conference call.

“These are not people who appear in windbreakers that say FBI on the back. These are simply attorneys who are making sure the process is working well.”

Danforth noted the seriousness of the allegations against ACORN.

“When the registration system is subverted to the tune of 400,000 applications submitted by one organization, that really undermines the whole process of conducting elections.”

According to Danforth, the McCain campaign has reached out to the Obama campaign to find a joint solution to voter fraud concerns, but have been essentially been “stiffed”.