ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, has gotten a significant amount of negative publicity in the last week. Here’s a summary of what’s happening with the group, which describes itself as a group that helps those who have historically been locked out become powerful players in our democratic system.

Background: ACORN & the Federal Government

According to The New York Times, the federal government has provided ACORN with $53 million dollars since 1994. On September 14th, the Senate voted 83–7 to withhold further funds.

Further, the Census Bureau has reportedly informed ACORN that its help will not be needed with the 2010 census—a change from earlier plans.

Voter Registration in 2008

According to sources, ACORN came under fire from some conservatives during the election season last year, when as many as 30% of new voter registrations the group gathered were shown to be fraudulent.

The Latest: Undercover Videos

This week, James O’Keefe, a self-named activist filmmaker released undercover films he made of certain facilities. In the films:

• O’Keefe poses as a pimp with a woman posing as a prostitute.
• They visit ACORN offices for advice on getting a loan to open a brothel.
• The ACORN workers apparently offer advice for how the pair can get around certain laws to get loans.

Though conservative infotainment network Fox News has treated the videos as a scandal, most mainstream networks have taken a less aggressive stance. In a statement, ACORN’s chief organizer, Bertha Lewis, asserts that the video-taping was attempted in various cities and failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen were achieved.

Lewis also insists that the videos were doctored or edited to make their content seem more objectionable than it actually was. She notes, too, that the workers shown in the video have since been let go.

ACORN has a decades-long history of helping underprivileged groups achieve equality, including helping people get fair credit after filing bankruptcy and advocating changes to the bankruptcy law to help homeowners.

Tags: acorn, senate