ZOMBIE FEARS STILL SURROUND ACORN…. I suspect there’s a part of the population that will, forevermore, fear that ACORN will work quietly to do nefarious things. This suspicion is bolstered by the latest report from Public Policy Polling.

ACORN may not exist anymore but 20% of Americans still think (or at least say they think) it will steal the election to keep Democrats in control of Congress this fall. […]

Perhaps the most interesting thing about all this is that only 40% of voters definitively say they think ACORN will not steal the election with another 40% saying they’re not sure. I guess a lot of folks are just waiting to see if ACORN’s really gone away or if it’s just hiding in the bushes waiting for people to get complacent before it makes its move.

Sure, ACORN appears to be a defunct organization, but maybe that’s just what ACORN wants you to think. Once those nefarious community organizers have lulled you into a false sense of security, they’ll strike and destroy Western civilization.

On a more serious note, Dave Weigel raises a terrific observation today. This will be the first election cycle since the 1970s that ACORN won’t exist. It’ll also be the first election cycle since 2004 that Republicans do well. Ergo: “This year, Republicans will win, and I bet the myth of ACORN only grows — that a stubborn number of Americans will think that Democrats only won the 2006 and 2008 elections because of fraud, and that James O’Keefe saved us from it.”

It’s going to be ugly.

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Follow Steve on Twitter @stevebenen. Steve Benen is a producer at MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show. He was the principal contributor to the Washington Monthly's Political Animal blog from August 2008 until January 2012.