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Rotten ACORNS

ACORNS were popping all over Ohio today. In the most significant development the full Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a decision made last week by a three-member panel that itself had overturned a federal district court opinion requiring a reluctant (Democratic) Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, to verify the identity of newly registered voters.

The result: Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must create computer programs to cross check all new voter registrations so that county boards of elections can doublecheck new registrants.

The Secretary of State will now have to verify new registrations by comparing information on them with data from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration.

?As far as we can tell, the problem with the current system (of cross-checking) is not that it is insufficiently user-friendly, but that it is effectively useless,? wrote Judge Jeffrey Sutton, writing for the majority.

But there was more:

? In Lebanon, a lawsuit was filed against ACORN by a conservative research group, claiming votes are being diluted by fake or duplicate registrations. The suit filed by two Warren County residents seeks to dissolve ACORN under the Corrupt Activity Act.

? In Columbus, Mike Crites, a former U.S. Attorney and Republican candidate for Ohio attorney general, said ACORN should be investigated under the state or federal racketeering statutes for alleged fraud. ?I?ve spent 20 years as a prosecutor so it?s not too hard to spot a bad apple ? or in this case, a bad ACORN,? Crites said. If elected Nov. 4, Crites said his first day in office would be spent conferring with county prosecutors in large Ohio cities and Ohio?s federal prosecutors to begin gathering evidence of possible election fraud by ACORN and others.

? The Hamilton County Board of Elections is checking whether ACORN fraudulently submitted multiple voter registrations for people who don?t exist; The board has received at least 10,000 duplicate voter registrations this year and possibly thousands of fictitious ones, deputy director John William said earlier. Julie Wilson, a spokeswoman for Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, said Tuesday she could not comment on cases, but said, ?Any violation of Ohio law Joe is going to treat seriously.?

And that?s just Ohio. Meanwhile, on PajamasMedia, Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit catalogs other complaints against ACORN in Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio (the may who was paid to register 73 times), Nevada, Indiana, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, Michigan, and New Mexico.

In Washington, Sen. John Coryn (R, Tex) has sent a letter to the Attorney General arguing that ?ACORN and its affiliates should be investigated as a criminal enterprise.?

UPDATE

Here?s another catalog of ACORN investigations, etc. HatTip to Jennifer Rubin of Commentary, who writes:

It is almost inconceivable that Barack Obama should not have been grilled on this ?either by his opponent or the media. (The latter is just beginning to cover the story.) Obama?s ties are deep and extensive with an organization that embraces goals and tactics well outside the political mainstream and that has engaged in a pattern of illegal activity usually seen only in RICO indictments. ACORN?s present involvement in coast-to-coast fraud is jaw-dropping and should raise the issue as to whether an Obama Justice Department would vigorously investigate and, if warranted, prosecute this entity and all involved.... Put simply, Obama worked for and helped funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to a fraud-infested, corrupt organization and has yet to explain himself, let alone apologize for the same.

Full post as published by Discriminations on October 15, 2008 (boomark / email).