An activist organization on Tuesday defended its voter registration practices amid new allegations of voter fraud and a call from Republican lawmakers to investigate irregularities.
In Ohio, a key swing state in an election that is won on a state-by-state basis, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama told reporters that the group’s registration problems should not be used by the Republicans as an excuse to keep voters from turning out on Election Day.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN, has registered 1.3 million young people, minorities and poor and working-class voters, the group says.
Some of those registration cards have become the focus of fraud investigations in Nevada, Connecticut, Missouri and at least five other states. Election officials also recently questioned the group’s voter forms in Ohio and North Carolina, a southern state that is normally a safe bet for Republicans but is now up for grabs.
More than 13,000 workers in 21 states recruited low-income voters, who tend to be Democrats.
“The vast, vast majority were dedicated workers,” ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan said at a news conference on Tuesday. “They did something remarkable in bringing all these new voters.”
On Monday, election officials in Ohio’s most populous county asked a prosecutor to probe multiple registrations by four people who signed up through ACORN. One voter said he signed 73 voter registration forms over a five-month period.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections is reviewing suspect voter forms from at least two counties.
Meanwhile, House Republicans have also renewed their push for the Justice Department to investigate the group. On Friday, six Republican leaders wrote to US Attorney General Michael Mukasey to urge him to make sure ballots by ineligible or fraudulent voters are not counted on Nov. 4.
A law enforcement official said ACORN has been on the radar of federal investigators. But the official would not say whether an investigation has been opened, and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue so close to the presidential election.
Whelan said ACORN staffers separate applications with missing or false information and flag them for election officials. All applications, including problematic cards, are handed in because some state laws require it, he said.
Whelan said he did not know how many registration cards had problems but believed it was a small percentage. He was unsure how many workers were fired for purposely turning in duplicates or applications with fake information, he said.
“If they look false, we identify them as such,” Whelan said of the forms.
ACORN has been drawn into a back-and-forth between the presidential campaigns.
Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain’s campaign on Tuesday accused Obama of having close ties to the group.
“Obama has a responsibility to rein in ACORN and prove that he’s willing to fight voter fraud,” said McCain’s running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, in an interview with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday.
Obama and two other lawyers in 1995 represented ACORN in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois to make voter registration easier. During this year’s primary, Obama hired a firm with ties to the group for a massive get-out-the-vote effort.
Obama told reporters on Tuesday that ACORN was not advising his campaign on voter registration.
Last week, McCain called for a federal investigation of the organization during a campaign rally. His campaign manager, Rick Davis, has said Obama’s connection to the activist group should be investigated.
“This is another one of those distractions that get stirred up during the campaign,” Obama said.
Separately on Tuesday, the Buckeye Institute, a conservative think tank in Columbus, Ohio, filed a lawsuit against ACORN over its voter registration drives.
The lawsuit, filed in Warren County Common Pleas Court, alleges that the group engages in a pattern of corrupt activity that amounts to organized crime and seeks its dissolution.
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