Election-Campaign Law

ACORN RAIDED

By Thad Hall

CBS News, and most other news organizations, have this story.

The Las Vegas headquarters of the nation?s largest grassroots community organization for low-income people was raided today by Nevada state authorities as part of a voter-fraud probe.

The raid was initiated by Nevada?s Secretary of State, Ross Miller, after a series of accusations that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also known as ACORN, was submitting voter registration lists to the state that contained false or duplicate names of voters.

?When we got [to the headquarters], no one was there so, there were no arrests,? Secretary of State spokesman Bob Walsh told CBS News. But, he added ?agents did seize lots of records.?

CBS News has learned that the state?s investigation is focusing on the conduct of ACORN?s work force. Critics allege that ACORN hires workers ?off the street? to sign up new voters, paying them by the number of voters registered - sometimes resulting in false and duplicate names. But an ACORN spokesman dismisses this allegation and told CBS News that workers are paid ?by the hour? and ?not by the number of people they sign up.?

The Las Vegas paper reported that ACORN staff registered the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.

What makes this story so troubling is that ACORN has had this problem in other occasions over the last 5 years.  I did a quick Lexis search and found cases of indictments or convictions of ACORN workers in Missouri in April of 2008, Washington State, Wisconsin, and other places.   Moreover, these sort of registration problems are the fodder for election fraud claims and are used by those who support stringent voter identification at the polls and more stringent voter registration identification requirements.

Full post as published by Election Updates on October 08, 2008 (boomark / email).