You really should have been able to do better than that, rig.

Here is what I take to be the ad in question. Very much to the point and effective.

Of course it doesn't say "don't vote for McCain and the Republicans", it just asks people to stop them trying to prevent people entitled to vote from voting, and obviously no one in a democracy should ever try to do that.

If I'd been ACORN I'd have phrased it slightly different - not "John McCain and the Republicans" but perhaps "people in the campaign of John McCain and the Republicans". That sticks to the proved facts. I'd think it more likely that the dirty tricks brigade operate on a deniable nod-and-a-wink basis, rather than relying on direct orders from the top.

But then McCain's very direct accusations against ACORN did rather smack of potential libel, so perhaps that's how you do it in the States. And if McCain and Co haven't been doing everything they can to stop the kind of voter suppression and exclusion that has been reported, which appears to have been the case, that's essentially the same as ordering it.