ACT (America Coming Together), an independent group with the aim of ousting President Bush from office, has been using convicted felons to conduct door-to-door voter registration drives. Their employees who have been convicted of crimes that include burglary, forgery, drug dealing, assault and sex offenses go door-to-door and "gather telephone numbers and other personal information -- birth dates, driver's license numbers or partial Social Security numbers, depending on each state's requirements for voter registration."
ACT has announced a new policy saying they would fire anyone who has been convicted of a violent or "serious" offense and would conduct background checks on new employees but that they would still continue to hire people who are "re-entering society". "It declined to define what it considers violent or serious offenses under the new policy."
According to their website, "canvassers have reached over 2,000,000 targeted households."
They are calling the news stories right-wing attacks. I didn't see anywhere on the site where they admit that it's stupid to have people convicted of sexual assault going door-to-door or giving forgers access to personal information. I can't tell if anyone there even understands why people might be concerned about this.
If an organization that claims to employ over 1,400 canvassers wasn't doing background checks before, do you really think they have your best interests in mind?
Posted by marybeth at June 25, 2004 07:44 AM NewsChrist, that inspires confidence... *shudder*
Posted by Paul Jané at June 25, 2004 06:11 PM