Addressing the ACORN Issue

I've debated, for the past couple of days, about whether or not to address this issue.  I worked for ACORN from the latter days of 2007, to early 2008, and I happened to specifically work in Voter Registration.  I definitely didn't want to come out and disclose methods ACORN uses or anything that may hurt their efforts, because what they're doing needs to be done.  So, I wasn't sure if I should say anything, at all. 

Today in the New York Times, an article was published clearing up some of the facts I wanted to share... so, I figured I'll go ahead and give you my account of how the organization works -- and why the reports are bogus.

First of all, as an employee, I definitely feel like I got screwed.  I was first introduced to the organization when I interviewed for a Political Organizer position in D.C.  The very same day, I interviewed with such organizations as the D.C.C.C., the D.N.C., and many other major organizations and campaigns.  The same day, I was offered an immediate, well-paying position on Hillary Clinton's campaign in Iowa (which I politely declined, based on my personal interest in getting "T.K.O." [formerly referred to as, "That One," by John McCain, which I've ammended to That Known One -- I figure that's probably what he really meant since McCain's named him such a celebrity] elected. On the subject of T.K.O., I was offered "just about any position" I could possibly want getting him elected, as well.  Among all of those offers, I received an offer from ACORN -- it didn't pay quite as well as the others, it was non-partisan, it wasn't as prominent of an organization, but the causes they worked towards and fought against were something that really caught my interest: Voter Registration (on one side of the organization), Foreclosures, and Predatory Lending, Free Tax Preparation, Credit and Mortgage Counseling (on the other).

During this interview, along with my job offer, I was told they would most likely be sending me to a specific city with one of the highest costs of living. I was told I was going to receive a cost of living differential, a bilingual differential, and experience pay.  After a lot of consideration, I decided that, although the Obama campaign was more important to my personal desires --I knew he'd get it without me, the most responsible decision I could make was to take a permanent position, obviously that couldn't be for a campaign. ACORN offered the sweetest deal for the best causes, and I accepted it.

 ACORN sent me to another city for my training, originally scheduled for four weeks. Due to the training being scheduled so close to major religious holidays, they were going to sqeeze all that knowledge into three weeks, for us.  One week before I was to leave, my travel arrangements were delivered to me by e-mail, and I learned that I was expected to fly out of a city that was five hours away from me, in another state, because the moron booking my trip figured that, since Ohio is right next to Kentucky, it shouldn't be that far.  Bare in mind, within 90 miles in EVERY direction, there are at least 3 major airports, one of them in MY city -- same airlines, same ticket prices -- I could've flown out of.  They wouldn't change my flight.  So, I had my sister drive me almost two hours (one way) to meet with a coworker who was also scheduled for the same flight. From there, a friend of his drove us the other three hours (one way) to catch the flight... mind you, the five hour drive was in the complete opposite direction as the final destination *(!?).

Upon arrival to the training city, the coworker who shared my flight, a trainee from Texas, and I waited for over an hour and a half for a ride from the airport.  Nobody was holding the sign with our names, or ACORN for that matter, which we were instructed to look for.  Finally, one of the trainers pulled up, two of us loaded our bags, while another trainer pulled up and abandoned ship (AT THE AIRPORT!) to go get Texas' bags -- taking the keys with her!  Of course, Mr.TSA skk-rrrts up on his bike ready to issue a ticket for the abandoned vehicle, and <b>of course</b> have it towed. Short-story-long, the idiot finally came back and we got the bags loaded up, sat there for another 15 minutes waiting for a phone call verifying how many people they were supposed to pick up -- WHY DIDN'T THEY ALREADY KNOW THAT???? -- and we finally left.

 We arrived to our temporary residence, where my coworker (who I knew and had worked with on previous campaigns, etc.) and I were informed that, although the "big boss" said we could share an apartment as opposed to sharing with people we didn't know, they weren't going to let that happen because co-ed rooming just didn't seem right. I was under the impression that we were adults at training for a new job, and not church camp -- I didn't fight the issue, it was just dumb.

The following morning, as instructed, most of us arrived downstairs in the parking lot... where we waited for our late trainers, wondering how far they must have had to drive to get us... then they walked out of the building we <b>all</b> walked out of and got in their cars. Frustrating! After a lot of confusing rearrangments to get everyone into vehicles and to the office, we finally made it. 

Our first order of business was filling out our paperwork and tax forms, just like any other business. This is where I hit a really big problem. They were having us fill out the contracts of how much we were to make per year and all that... well, what my trainer told me to write down wasn't going to work where I was being sent, so I declined the request to sign. My trainer got on the phone and left some messages and I was told not to worry that it would be taken care of.  I continued with training.

Honestly, the training I received in the "classroom" could have probably been better spent reading the manual myself at ten times the speed we actually took to cover it -- that wouldn't neccesarily have been true for the all of the "class".  BUT, the approach they took with the "hands-on" part was great.  We were actually setting up a big city's first office.  Our training put us in the place our "employees" would be in.  We practiced different ways of approaching people about filling out VR cards, then we went out into the streets and actually tried it. We were given typical standards to give us a guideline of how to measure our success while "in the field" and something to drive towards... all of us went out for our first day, with our goal for the number of VR cards we needed to collect, feeling like a million bucks because it was going to be a piece of cake.

I'm sad to say, I felt SO defeated walking back in the office that day. I literally only got six voter registration cards (let me just go ahead and break your heart, too -- it wasn't even close to the standard), one person didn't put the date on it, one person didn't put a SSN, and another didn't check the boxes (Y/N: Are you eligible to vote? Have you been convicted of a felony? Have you been ruled by any court of law to be mentally incapacitated?) because the clip on the clipboard was covering them.  Damn!  That meant that 50% of my VR cards were crap!... and unacceptable as complete registrations, and therefore were not going to actually get those people registered. On day one, I learned that a number given to me at the beginning of the day seemed SO small, and at the end of the day seemed like infinity. My homework that night was to write a report on why I didn't do well and the factors that may have played a part in it, and then to devise a strategy for getting at least closer to my goal the next day.

We all entered the class on the second day ready to tackle those numbers. The goal was the same, but the game had changed because all of us had one day's experience and a whole night of thinking about-- and writing out-- a plan to succeed on the next; whereas, the day before we simply had instructions. We went out our second day to locations the trainers picked, in different groups than the previous day, with new and well-practiced ways of approaching potential registrants, and gave it our best shot -- at least most of us.

I came back with more than the day before. One. That's right, I said it! One more ef-ing VR card than my previous failed attempt. My feelings's hiney (why don't your feelings have a hiney?) was kicked by it, too! Seriously, my feelings were hurt that I was that bad at getting people to sign up for a right they already have. In fact, filling out this paper doesn't even require any further action in the future... doesn't even serve the possibility of junk mail. You just check the boxes, put your name, d.o.b., address, last four digits of your SSN (legal in our training state), optional phone number (for verification), check two more boxes, choose a party or leave blank, sign and date -- and you're done! The only further event that would result is a Voter ID Card in the mail. One time.

I couldn't even get people to do that! I thought I was going to be kicked out of training and jobless.

Most of us came dragging in, discouraged, a few came back over goal, and a few fell between. Every one was sent out in teams, and the few who came back over goal were all together, those of us who did terrible were mostly all together (with the few who fell between sprinkled, throughout). All of us went back with the same homework as the night before, I cried for a second because I was sad to find the thing I'm that bad at -- and that it simply required me being able to get people to just talk to me... or at least not ignore me. The challenge was intensified by the fact that we were training in the, I've decided, RUDEST city in the entire country, if not world!

I did my homework on the way home, it was clear to me that certain sites we were sent to just weren't good and that they should rotate those good sites to give others a chance to see if that could be the problem.

After arriving, many of us gathered to enjoy the ammenities of the apartments and blow off a little steam. This is when the family was born, because I learned that (even in people who I didn't care to work with) the people I was around were all there for different reasons, with different motivations, but they were all good.

We were a mixture of different political parties, different races, ethnicities, generations, backgrounds, religions -- we truly represented America. We were America trying to wake the rest of America up and tell her that she still has a voice -- literally begging her to at least hum along, if not sing.

We were America, and once again the challenge was intensified by the fact that we were training in the most recently, most harshly raped (voting wise) state in our nation. I felt like preaching to America that she can still sing was a lie, not necessarily when I told it to them, but at the end of the day when only seven of her even bothered to hear me.

The people I was with and the fact that we were all there to do something good, were encouraging; on the other hand, the situation and the challenges we faced were so discouraging. I was in a pickle. I think.

Our third day, we all went in with our mental armor on. We were prepared for another day of possible defeat. Our day began with enlightening information -- the goals were set too high on purpose. Though we still weren't quite pulling our weight, we weren't doing NEARLY as poorly as it seemed before. But, it was still discouraging to know that THAT MANY PEOPLE just ignore a person trying to save them some time and effort by registering them where they already are. I don't think it would surprise many people that a lot of people don't vote, simply because they haven't bothered to register. I think I remember that less than 40% of this country is even REGISTERED to vote, of those eligible. That's retarded. [And that isn't politically incorrect -- someTHING can be retarded, not just people!)
 
This was the day we started learning how to build our own city's offices. We went out looking for places that looked like a lot of people, hopefully different people, would pass every day. At these different locations, we were testing them out by trying to get voter registrations, and we were also trying to recruit people who are interested in doing the same thing part-time. I looked at this as great -- we created American jobs for American people to simply help other American people take advantage of their right to vote and, in my opinion, duty to vote. We did this for a lot of the following days, and then continued on to the office support work, which would also be positions we would have to hire. By performing all of these tasks and responsibilities, we were gaining the best kind of teaching knowledge -- the experience to know how it REALLY works, and also to know WHO is needed for the job.

The office support jobs were completely separate, not even during the same hours, so the registration collectors have no connection with them. At this point, we took all the VR cards that had been collected so far to make verification phone calls. ACORN really pushes to get some sort of contact information, because that's their best tool to ensure that the people are who they say they are and really did fill out the VR card. All the VR cards were divided up and handed out to people (obviously not the person who filled it out) and we all got on the phones and started verifying them. In one of the batches I verified, I noticed quite a few VR cards from the same person had the same phone number, but different addresses and names. I made notes and separated them from the stack [There were four categories: Verified ready to go to the B.O.E., Unverified but future attempts will be made, Questionable because they can't be verified but their ready to go to the B.O.E., and Fraudulent and ready to go to the B.O.E]. You see, all of those scenarios result in the VR card going back to the B.O.E. That's because ACORN is required by law to turn in every card they were issued.

ACORN does all the leg work, all the way to the point of verifying, so they can give the B.O.E. a more accurate shot at preventing fraudulent VR cards from making it through on ACORN's behalf. From that particular situation with the same phone numbers over and over, I found my first case of fraud -- and also learned another reason to give people standards that are too high -- the bad eggs will cheat. AND, those cheaters will get caught. Cheaters who get caught with ACORN don't work with them, and I'm very confident in that fact.
 
By the end of training, we had all recruited our own employees, held orientations and trainings, had a full staff of people who were bringing back verifiable registrations in the quantities that met the requirements, we had succeeded and the Political Organizer for that city was going to have a much easier road ahead of him thanks to our training group. AND, we all left there feeling good about the training we received and about doing it in our cities. The same number of people still ignored us or didn't talk to us, but we learned there's no short-cuts, no way around talking to EVERY person who walks past you, just to come back with what used to seem like a little bitty number.
 
One thing I'm NOT is convinced that ACORN does anything other than try to make this country better. However, the promises that were made to me in my interview were unauthorized promises by a person who was leaving because she had recently become an elected official of her local government and apparently didn't stand to lose much in misleading me. I'm over being upset with ACORN, because I know one dishonest and careless person doesn't sum up the organization and it's unfortunate. [I wouldn't mind a year's salary in compensation, if you're listening, ACORN.]
 
I hear the crap the conservatives are trying to shove down our throats about ACORN... and of course Obama's ties to ACORN. Well, the fact the Obama ever had anything to do with ACORN lets me know that I made one hell of a decision. I was standing in his footprints in some small way, and I know how pure and honest my heart and intentions were going into it and coming out of it... and that makes me love him a little more, too.