GOP Alleges Nonprofit Voter Fraud

CBS Evening News Investigates ACORN, The Group Accused Of Registering Dead People To Vote

(CBS)  This week Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, went after one of the nation's leading voter registration groups which focuses its efforts on minorities and low-income families and is now being investigated for voter fraud.

Known as ACORN, it runs one of the largest community voter registration drives in the nation, signing up more than 1.3 million mostly minority and low-income people this year alone.

But now top Republicans are calling for a "full-scale" investigation of their operation, and McCain is calling the organization out, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports.

"There are serious allegations of voter fraud," McCain said this week.

Joseph Borges, the registrar of voters in Bridgeport, Conn., says his office has been overwhelmed by bogus forms filled out with thousands of fake and duplicate names - two boxes alone packed with non-existent addresses - all submitted by ACORN.

"There's something wrong with the process, to have this happen for a registration drive," said Borges.

Since June, election officials in at least a dozen states have raised red flags over more than 10,000 voter registration forms filed by ACORN. For example, in one Ohio county ACORN registered the same person 17 times.

And earlier this week law enforcement agents raided ACORN's office in Las Vegas, carting away files and computers.

"It was purely politically motivated," said Bertha Lewis, a chief organizer for ACORN. "The right wing and specifically the Republicans."

Lewis is the chief organizer for ACORN. She claims only a tiny fraction of their new registrations have problems. Problems, critics charge, related to the pressure ACORN reportedly puts on its workers to up their numbers - at any cost.

"Do you have quotas that people have to fill every day?" Keteyian asked Lewis.

"No," she said. "We pay people by the hour. And also, we train folks on a daily basis."

But CBS News has talked to nearly two dozen ACORN workers who all said they were pressured to increase their number of registration cards - to the point of copying names out of phone books, signing up inmates, and registering the dead.

"They just have to maintain 25 cards a day," Borges said. "That's a quota, as far as I'm concerned."

Whether simple error or outright fraud, the charges surrounding ACORN are already raising doubts about the integrity of the upcoming election in key parts of the country.

[joezap5]

Acorn was the victim of their own stupid quota system. They paid the inner city poor by the hour and "suggested" (quota) that about 14 new registrants per day would be acceptable.

If you''''''''ve ever registered voters in districts that are being combed by many political organizations at once, during a hectic political season, you see that the region quickly becomes saturated. They should''''''''ve known that once their cash paid, low income, workers were striking out they may resort to fudging the forms.

The fact that the Acorn employees registered fictitious names like Mickey Mouse, Fred Flintstone And John Q. Public, in no way comes close to voter fraud! The Irony is that Acorn, in a way, is the one who was defrauded. But, by being that stupid, they deserve it.

The worst part of the Acorn affair is that the disgusting, Anti-American, Voter suppressing, Civil Rights destroying GOP is able to lie and use this to their advantage.

After Kathleen Harris & Co. purged tens of thousands of legitimately registered voters in Florida In 2000 (An election Gore "lost" by less than 270 votes), the GOP will try to claim that this is the reason McCain is going to loose in a landslide election. Sick Irony...

[ReasonableGuy]

PLEASE be sure to report on McCain''s connection and support of ACORN. It is at least, if not more, extensive than Obama''s.

[rw97]

Big sorry! I had the same prob as carbon. It said the response tab was out for a short time. Sorry again...my first time too.

[rw97]

I have a question. Registration fraud isn''t the same as voter fraud, right? If they register a million Joe Blows no one is going to show up and vote under that name. If they don''t catch the fake registrations, nothing happens. No oe votes. How does ACORN submitting all these phony or duplicate names etc. help dems?
Any info would be appreciated.

[rw97]

I have a question. Registration fraud isn''t the same as voter fraud, right? If they register a million Joe Blows no one is going to show up and vote under that name. If they don''t catch the fake registrations, nothing happens. No oe votes. How does ACORN submitting all these phony or duplicate names etc. help dems?
Any info would be appreciated.

[rw97]

I have a question. Registration fraud isn''t the same as voter fraud, right? If they register a million Joe Blows no one is going to show up and vote under that name. No one will show up to vote using those fake names. If they don''t catch the fake registrations, nothing happens. How does ACORNS submitting all these phony or duplicate names etc. help dems?
Any help would be appreciated.

[rw97]

I have a question. Registration fraud isn''t the same as voter fraud, right? If they register a million Joe Blows no one is going to show up and vote under that name. No one will show up to vote using those fake names. If they don''t catch the fake registrations, nothing happens. How does ACORNS submitting all these phony or duplicate names etc. help dems?
Any help would be appreciated.

[rw97]

I have a question. Registration fraud isn''t the same as voter fraud, right? If they register a million Joe Blows no one is going to show up and vote under that name. If they don''t catch the fake registrations, nothing happens. No one will show up to vote using those fake names. How does ACORNS submitting all these phony or duplicate names etc. help dems?
Any help would be appreciated.

[rw97]

I have a question. Registration fraud isn''t the same as voter fraud, right? If they register a million Joe Blows no one is going to show up and vote under that name. If they don''t catch the fake registrations, nothing happens. No one will show up to vote using those fake names. How does ACORNS submitting all these phony or duplicate names etc. help dems?
Any help would be appreciated.

[rw97]

I have a question. Registration fraud isn''t the same as voter fraud, right? If they register a million Joe Blows no one is going to show up and vote under that name. If they don''t catch the fake registrations, nothing happens. No one will show up to vote using those fake names. How does ACORNS submitting all these phony or duplicate names etc. help dems?
Any help would be appreciated.

[carboneraser]

Sorry for the multiple posts but I am a 1st time user and since there was no acknowledgment that the "publish" button took, I erroneously clicked several times. My apologies.

[carboneraser]

I find it incredible that we on the verge of the biggest voter fraud in history encompassing 13 states and involving many thousands of fraudulent registrations. This places the whole election in jeopardy and yet there are those willing to shrug it off. Bi-partisan and non-partisan election officials have complained to authorities. The root of the problem lay at the feet of ACORN. They have a history over the past dozen years or so and yet the Congress wanted to grant them 20% of the bailout money. What has this nation come to? Were it not for CNN and FNC there would be barely any coverage at all. This is a national disgrace and more befitting a third-world country than the USA.

[carboneraser]

I find it incredible that we on the verge of the biggest voter fraud in history encompassing 13 states and involving many thousands of fraudulent registrations. This places the whole election in jeopardy and yet there are those willing to shrug it off. Bi-partisan and non-partisan election officials have complained to authorities. The root of the problem lay at the feet of ACORN. They have a history over the past dozen years or so and yet the Congress wanted to grant them 20% of the bailout money. What has this nation come to? Were it not for CNN and FNC there would be barely any coverage at all. This is a national disgrace and more befitting a third-world country than the USA.

[carboneraser]

I find it incredible that we on the verge of the biggest voter fraud in history encompassing 13 states and involving many thousands of fraudulent registrations. This places the whole election in jeopardy and yet there are those willing to shrug it off. Bi-partisan and non-partisan election officials have complained to authorities. The root of the problem lay at the feet of ACORN. They have a history over the past dozen years or so and yet the Congress wanted to grant them 20% of the bailout money. What has this nation come to? Were it not for CNN and FNC there would be barely any coverage at all. This is a national disgrace and more befitting a third-world country than the USA.

[carboneraser]

I find it incredible that we on the verge of the biggest voter fraud in history encompassing 13 states and involving many thousands of fraudulent registrations. This places the whole election in jeopardy and yet there are those willing to shrug it off. Bi-partisan and non-partisan election officials have complained to authorities. The root of the problem lay at the feet of ACORN. They have a history over the past dozen years or so and yet the Congress wanted to grant them 20% of the bailout money. What has this nation come to? Were it not for CNN and FNC there would be barely any coverage at all. This is a national disgrace and more befitting a third-world country than the USA.

[carboneraser]

I find it incredible that we on the verge of the biggest voter fraud in history encompassing 13 states and involving many thousands of fraudulent registrations. This places the whole election in jeopardy and yet there are those willing to shrug it off. Bi-partisan and non-partisan election officials have complained to authorities. The root of the problem lay at the feet of ACORN. They have a history over the past dozen years or so and yet the Congress wanted to grant them 20% of the bailout money. What has this nation come to?

[carboneraser]

I find it incredible that we on the verge of the biggest voter fraud in history encompassing 13 states and involving many thousands of fraudulent registrations. This places the whole election in jeopardy and yet there are those willing to shrug it off. Bi-partisan and non-partisan election officials have complained to authorities. The root of the problem lay at the feet of ACORN. They have a history over the past dozen years or so and yet the Congress wanted to grant them 20% of the bailout money. What has this nation come to?

[carboneraser]

I find it incredible that we on the verge of the biggest voter fraud in history encompassing 13 states and involving many thousands of fraudulent registrations. This places the whole election in jeopardy and yet there are those willing to shrug it off. Bi-partisan and non-partisan election officials have complained to authorities. The root of the problem lay at the feet of ACORN. They have a history over the past dozen years or so and yet the Congress wanted to grant them 20% of the bailout money. What has this nation come to?

[carboneraser]

I find it incredible that we on the verge of the biggest voter fraud in history encompassing 13 states and involving many thousands of fraudulent registrations. This places the whole election in jeopardy and yet there are those willing to shrug it off. Bi-partisan and non-partisan election officials have complained to authorities. The root of the problem lay at the feet of ACORN. They have a history over the past dozen years or so and yet the Congress wanted to grant them 20% of the bailout money. What has this nation come to?

[carboneraser]

I find it incredible that we on the verge of the biggest voter fraud in history encompassing 13 states and involving many thousands of fraudulent registrations. This places the whole election in jeopardy and yet there are those willing to shrug it off. Bi-partisan and non-partisan election officials have complained to authorities. The root of the problem lay at the feet of ACORN. They have a history over the past dozen years or so and yet the Congress wanted to grant them 20% of the bailout money. What has this nation come to?