Does Voter Fraud From ACORN Grow?

The Latest On Investigation Into Voter Registration Activities Of Non-Profit Organization

(CBS)  CBS News Investigative Producer Laura Strickler wrote this story for CBSNews.com.

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As questions about fraudulent voter registrations at ACORN offices grow nationwide, the organization today defended its efforts to sign up 1.3 million people, a record number of new voters for the upcoming presidential election. CBS News Chief Investigative Correspondent, Armen Keteyian reported on the growing allegations last week.

“That there can be errors in the process we freely admit that, but we are fiercely patriotic. The voter franchise was bought in blood,” said Reverend Gloria Swierenga, director of Maryland ACORN, invoking the names of civil rights workers who died for voting rights in the 1960's.

ACORN officials say after they collect new voter registrations they verify them and then red flag any suspicious applications before they turn them over to election officials across the country. They say they are bound by law not to throw the applications away no matter how absurd the applicants, be they Mickey Mouse or the names of Dallas Cowboy football players. One former election official who spoke on behalf of ACORN said it would be highly inappropriate for outside organizations to judge the validity of voter applications.

But when asked what percentage of the 1.3 million registrations were red flagged, the organization did not know. Kevin Whelan, one of the ACORN employees who runs the voter registration program said he would follow up later with a response, “You know I don’t want to give a number that I can’t back up, I will get the most exact information to date…it’s a very small minority.” Later Whelan followed up to say that ACORN believes the error rate is less than 1%.

Earlier this morning, former senators John Danforth and Warren Rudman who are affiliated with the McCain campaign held a press conference on ACORN voter fraud but refused to let ACORN officials attend according to ACORN employees.

The McCain campaign continued to hammer Obama for his connections to the community based organization. On the Rush Limbaugh show, Sarah Palin said, “Let’s talk quickly about ACORN and the unconscionable situation that we are facing right now with voter fraud, given the ties between Obama and ACORN and the money his campaign has sent them...for shame if the mainstream media were to cover this one up.”

Meanwhile ACORN released video of John McCain speaking at a 2006 rally in Florida on immigration reform that was sponsored by ACORN.


In the video McCain praises the room full of activists who are shouting in Spanish, "Yes we can," which has now become a rallying cry for Obama's campaign. McCain tells the group to loud applause, "What makes America special is what's in this room tonight."

“He was quite friendly to our ACORN members at that rally, so we just assumed he was a friend of ours before he decided he wasn’t, " said Steve Kest National Director of ACORN,

To punctuate the point, ACORN put out a press release with the headline, “ACORN to McCain: Have You Lost That Loving Feeling?”

[budbarb1]

It is amazing to me that this "investigative" CBS producer doesn''t question the truthfulness of the ACORN people as she questions the truthfulness of John McCain and his campaign. There is no "digging" for the real facts when it comes to CBS - just like Dan Rather. Trying to influence the election!!

[wlmrtpatriot]

This is the most biased hateful election I can remember. The media are all Pro-Obama and it''s sickening. This isn''t a democratic process anymore.
Farrakhan''s messiah worked for Acorn at one point.
Turn your d**n tv off. I have.

[hawksprings]

ACORN says the fraud rate is less than 1%???
What a bald-faced lie!

In Houston, they estimate 40% of ACORN''s registrations are fraudulent!
In Ohio, ACORN paid a teen with cigarettes and dollar bills to fill out 73 voter registrations.

And it goes on and on.

[longtree-2009]

Present the proof. ACORN or Palin & McCain or both. Present the proof to the American public. Name calling charges, denials, what-have-you, does not work. Proof, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that will hold up in a court of law. Show it to America.

[cees14]

it''s voter regisration fraud...NOT VOTER FRAUD. if there are multiple registration forms under one name of course they won''t be able to vote 3 times. i mean come on now. And..Mickey Mouse? come on..if the forms are fake then throw them out. WHY not ask for the Driver''s license when you are to vote. We need that for every *** thing...but voting..

[fralene-2009]

Some of you people don''t seem to have any objectivity or logical reasoning whatsoever. You want some kind of Obama scandal so badly that you need to believe the hogwash you are being fed. How gullible are you?

If fraud has been perpetrated, it has been fraud committed against ACORN. They pay people to sign up new voters. Do you really believe they would pay someone to copy names out of the phone book? Or do you think, just maybe, that for some it is easy money for little work to make up names to submit?

Palin and McCain have to try to stir the pot. It is all they have. Country first? ROFLMAO

[legacyabq]

How is CBS biased?
Someone tell me, without rhetoric and empty threats, how CBS is biased by presenting this story..
Read THE VERY FIRST SENTENCE, it says allegations about fraud are spreading... Then, it says ACORN defended itself.
These are simple facts, you can decide what it all means..
So, WHERE is this bias?
News organixzations deal in facts, not opinions (except Fox of course).
Rush Li8mbaugh is a private talk-show host, a partisan by definition. This is an example of biased media.. EDITORIAL media: entertainment really.
Just an example..
So, where is the biased editorializing in this story?
Copy and paste it please.
..or shut up already, you people''s paranoia is astounding!!

[legacyabq]

Fubar:

You could say the very same thing about the Palin family''s connections with the Alaska First movement, a seperatist movement with militia-overtones..
These stories WERE reported: they just don''t mean SHIITE.
What''s so scandalous about Liberation Theology?
Have you read about it? Do you know what it is based on?
Personally, I dont give a FLYING SHIITE what people say or do in their stupid churches, it''s all for show anyway..

[downsteamjim]

Can you believe the Republicans? First they complain about the dead being allowed to vote, next they don''t want people to vote multiple times, and now they don''t want Mickey Mouse to vote. SHAME!!!

[pipemajor2]

With 91% of Americans now dissatisfied with the direction of the country (Gallup), Obama doesn''t need to pad the election rosters to defeat a truly abysmal and increasingly out-of-touch republican ticket.

I''m sure the GOP will attempt to scare away potential voters (again) by threatening them they''ll be arrested (or worse) if they show up at the polls on election day.

[musethalia]

ACORN officials say after they collect new voter registrations they verify them and then red flag any suspicious applications before they turn them over to election officials across the country.

They say they are bound by law not to throw the applications away no matter how absurd the applicants, be they Mickey Mouse or the names of Dallas Cowboy football players.

You have GOT to be kidding me!!! This is a friggin nightmare and a JOKE!

[bailmeout1]

This has been going on for years in the "Blue States". That is why they stay blue - they have a more covert operation in place. It''s hard to catch them, they have become very good at it. This country is decidedly more away from the left than the media, and polls make it out to be.

[bailmeout1]

%u201CHe was quite friendly to our ACORN members at that rally, so we just assumed he was a friend of ours before he decided he wasn%u2019t, " said Steve Kest National Director of ACORN,

Yeah, he was your friend until he found out you were crooks. I guess he flip-flopped.

[downsteamjim]

kassandra: I am sorry that you slept through the aftermath of the 2000 election. It was Democrats who invented the hanging chad ballot. It was Democrats who worked to disallow the votes of those in the armed forces. Get a grip, join ACORN, and sign up the dead.

[jefflz-2009]

Let''s get this straight. ACORN does not work for Obama. They are a non-profit agency that pays workers to get people registered and they have had some workers just take names out of phonebooks, etc. to get money. Registration fraud does not mean voter fraud. Mickey Mouse is not coming to the polls to vote. They just tricked ACORN out of some money.
Here is what Obama has said.
"My relationship to ACORN is pretty straightforward. It''s probably 13 years ago when I was still practicing law, I represented ACORN and my partner in that representation was the U.S. Justice Department in having Illinois implement what was called the "motor voter" law, to make sure that people could go to DMVs and driver''s license facilities to get registered. It wasn''t being implemented. That was my relationship, and is my relationship to ACORN. THEY ARE NOT ADVISING OUR CAMPAIGN," Obama has said. "We''ve got the best voter registration and turnout and volunteer operation in politics right now and we don''t need ACORN''s help."
"This isn''t a situation where there''s actually people who are going to try to vote because these are phony names. ..Let''s just make sure everybody is voting, everybody''s registered. Let''s make sure that everybody''s doing it in a lawful way."

[bailmeout1]

"It requires every state to reject new would-be voters whose identity can''''t be verified against a state verification database."


What''s wrong with that? The votes are state run. There must be ways to add your name to that database. And if not, then that is where your fight is.

[mcpalin_fail]

musethalia at 08:12 PM : Oct 14, 2008 wrote:

"ACORN officials say after they collect new voter registrations they verify them and then red flag any suspicious applications before they turn them over to election officials across the country.

They say they are bound by law not to throw the applications away no matter how absurd the applicants, be they Mickey Mouse or the names of Dallas Cowboy football players.

You have GOT to be kidding me!!! This is a friggin nightmare and a JOKE!"

Having worked for the Government, and experiencing it''s bureaucracy, this doesn''t surprise me at all.

The Government sets the regulations/policies/procedures and they need to be followed - whether you like it or not.

[jollyjohnson]

When this issue is checked out in-depth it quickly becomes apparent this story is just one more HUGE "mountain-out-of-molehill" EXAGGERATION by the increasingly desperate McCain/Palin campaign and the stop-at-nothing RNC. This is not going to result in anyone casting a fraudulent vote because the bad applications were flagged and did not go thru the registration process. Nation wide the percentage of bad application which were flagged seems to be about one percent (1%). That certainly does not indicate an effort by ACORN to engage in fraud! In fact the whole problem was caused by a few incompetent/dishonest mostly part-time canvassers out of the 13,000 employed in the ACORN voter registration drive nation wide. As it turns out, Acorn itself flagged most of the bad forms and no actual voter fraud has occured. So far as is know, there have not been grounds for even a single arrest in this matter. So you see, this is just another trumped-up, much-ado-about-nothing distraction which McCain/Palin so desperately need for their faltering campaign!

[bailmeout1]

Let''''s get this straight. ACORN does not work for Obama.
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Posted by jefflz at 08:21 PM : Oct 14, 2008

$800,000 no need to say more.

[downsteamjim]

To jollyjohnson: Where did you get your numbers on ACORNs fraud rate? Do you really believe that someone who would sign up Mickey Mouse is totally honest?

[bailmeout1]

hehehehehe try to get a correct count out of New Jersey - hehehehe

[downsteamjim]

Kassandra: Please, Greg Palast is in the same class as Rev. White, Ayers, etc. He probably thinks Kim jong Il is a moderate.

[bailmeout1]

Why does the taxpayer support ACORN? Why is ACORN immune from the fallout from the housing market crash?
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Posted by downsteamjim at 08:28 PM : Oct 14, 2008

And why did Obama try to slip money to them in the original bail-out bill. When the country was being hit with a $750 Billion tab? People he doesn''t know? That is an utter lie, or he appropreated funds for a group he knew little about. And the the Senate throws $150 Billion on top of the final bill? This is BS!

[downsteamjim]

Kassandra: It is a shame that some AG''s would not look into voter fraud. They should fit into Obama''s cabinet well.

[downsteamjim]

Kassandra: Your last name may well be ad hominem. This is an article on ACORN. A group that has made voter fraud a business and a way of life. Robert Mugabe would be proud of them.

[element51]

kassandrasdu.....I keep trying to post to you but I keep getting thrown off line. So I''ll just say keep up the good fight. You are articulate and smart and these republican trolls cannot intimidate you. Know that you have at least one admirer out here. You are right in everything you have posted. I have read many of the same books and know what to expect this election. For Obama to win by a nose he will have to have a landside.

[mccurrym4]

Add the tactics of ACORN to the tactics of So Chicago Pol Macnine, to the tactics of Obama campaign workers when undecided degelgates wouldn''t cow tow to an immediate Obama endorsement, to the suppression of Obama records from Columbia and Harvard, to his yet unsubmitted valid and legal birth certificate to the court that subpoenied it, to the subtle accusations that anyone who differs with his views is either racist or divisive, to his willlingness to change his policies at whim depending on what he assumes the people listening want at the time despite no record of accomplishment on anything. to the radical fringe social policies he fully espouses that promote fully unobstructed abortion on demand to even minors without parental knowledge, to this publicly stated plan to abolish the rights of individual states and their citizens to pass any law that would inhibit abortions or support parental authority, that he openly voiced one of his memoirs how he learned from men like Sol Olinsly and Rev Wright who were his mentors and where he learned the liberation theology of revolutionaries and Marxists.....on and on and on....
Why are people so shocked about ACORN? With George Soros and Planned Parenthood funding there''s enough in the coffers to buy plenty of votes and insure his ascension to power. Pray hard. Pray fast. Pray deep. This country and this world is in for a RADICAL CHANGE that we some will say Yes we can but no we shouldn''t. NObama. NOBiden NOMarx, NOSocialism NOWAY!

[misha128-2009]

Republicans passed the HAVA act in 2002 with voter registration validation requirements the Republicans apparently forget they changed the law to be able to detect and eliminate fraudulent applications.

[norepubs]

Look no further than the 2000,and 2004 elections to see examples of textbook republican voter fraud.
Republicans are lying fascists who try to blame ''the other guy'' for their criminal behavior......

[norepubs]

Republicians worked behind the scenes in the last two Presidential elections to get peoople THROWN OFF OF VOTER REGISTRATION ROLLS

[mydogdylan6]

Waaaaa. Already whining about why you lost the election? Obviously, this is just an attempt to cast doubt about Obama''s win. Fox ran an article yesterday about the "fraud" in Ohio until they realized the head of the election board was a Republican. And of the 650,000 registrations, only 50 were even suspect. They took it down a couple hours later. It''s a fabrication of the GOP so they can engage in voter suppression again!

[mydogdylan6]

Of those registered by ACORN, 40% were REPUBLICANS. (At least that explains Micky Mouse)

[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 votes. How does ACORN submitting all these phony or duplicate names etc. help dems?
Any info would be appreciated.

[ubu2008]

First, ACORN was a cosponsor of the event and they were not signing up illegals at the event and John McCain didn''t pay them 832K for voter registration and tell the Election Committee it was for staging and lighting. Second, the conncection with ACORN and voters registration was not created by the republicans, they didn''t supervise ACORN''s employees that would have been ACORN''s responsibility. This is not an issolated incident, but one of 10s of thousands of registrations. One person, one vote is the only way any american should accept voting. I have employees and if I fail to supervise them then it is my problem. ACORN cannot say they did nothing wrong at the very least they are incompetent, but I suspect they should probably be arrested on RICO charges for operating an ongoing criminal enterprise. It looks like ACORN representatives are saying that they only have a little voter fraud. 3000 dead people, 7 year olds, same voter 73 times, Once again we have Obama with his incremental admissions of involement with radicals, but only to the extent he was exposed. Obama is really making a mistake by taking this issue too lightly. The polls say he is offending voters.

[loyalto1]

When the hispanic''s are the majority in America, there will be no more free ride''s for anyone because of brainwashed guilt.

[nursehope]

The republicans seem to use the defense mechanism of projection....accusing others of the behavior that they themselves do. Get some treatment people!

[barbara_camp]

The media loves sensationalism, and creates it when necessary.

Obviously, some ACORN employees tried to up their income by submitting fake voter registration forms to ACORN. This doesn''t affect the vote process folks, since either ACORN or the Board of Elections will catch the erroneous registration forms. Mickey Mouse is hardly going to show up and vote. Ditto the Dallas Cowboys.

Please think for yourselves, and stop making the smoke and then screaming fire. Next???

[barbara_camp]

The media loves sensationalism, and creates it when necessary.

Obviously, some ACORN employees tried to up their income by submitting fake voter registration forms to ACORN. This doesn''t affect the vote process folks, since either ACORN or the Board of Elections will catch the erroneous registration forms. Mickey Mouse is hardly going to show up and vote. Ditto the Dallas Cowboys.

Please think for yourselves, and stop making the smoke and then screaming fire. Next???

[yourpointis]

If the media were truly liberal we''''d have Hillary Clinton running against McCain.

Posted by kassandrasdu at 08:27 PM : Oct 14, 2008

Evidently, you live with your head in the sand. How could you NOT see that the media is liberally biased? I''m okay with that, I can make my own decisions, and am not waiting for Obama to get elected for a "free ride". I work, pay taxes, pay my bills, etc. Obama DID work with and for Acorn. You can read it all over the place. If the tables were turned and it was McCain in this article, there would be hundreds upon hundreds of comments. Plain and simple. Call me what you will, I don''t care - I''m going to bed now because I have to WORK tomorrow. Oh, and I did you a favor...since you don''t know how to use spell-check, I redid McCain''s name for you, to show him the proper respect he deserves...and did NOT misspell Obama''s....I''m just a polite Republican like that. :)

Sweet Dreams!!! Heh he.....

[barbara_camp]

The media loves sensationalism, and creates it when necessary.

Obviously, some ACORN employees tried to up their income by submitting fake voter registration forms to ACORN. This doesn''t affect the vote process folks, since either ACORN or the Board of Elections will catch the erroneous registration forms. Mickey Mouse is hardly going to show up and vote. Ditto the Dallas Cowboys.

Please think for yourselves, and stop making the smoke and then screaming fire. Next???

[barbara_camp]

The media loves sensationalism, and creates it when necessary.

Obviously, some ACORN employees tried to up their income by submitting fake voter registration forms to ACORN. This doesn''t affect the vote process folks, since either ACORN or the Board of Elections will catch the erroneous registration forms. Mickey Mouse is hardly going to show up and vote. Ditto the Dallas Cowboys.

Please think for yourselves, and stop making the smoke and then screaming fire. Next???

[obbcbs]

I saw McCain on video just now, from TWO years ago, praising ACORN at an ACORN convention.

Obama''s ACORN connection is from THIRTEEN years ago, when he was hired by them to be their attorney in a case to get the state of Illinois to let people register to vote when they get their driver''s license. Obama''s partner, co-counsel was the US attorney general''s Chicago attorney.

It seems like McCain''s praise in person to the entire membership, two years ago is more to the point than a person working for a law firm in private industry taking a case.

Hmmm? Looks like another nonsense song from McCain. Its the other guy BUT please ignore what I did more recently.

[idnnsg]

1. It is NOT "parsing" to point out the difference between "voter registration fraud" and "voter fraud". In this case, it is ACORN that was defrauded! ACORN paid people to register new voters. Some people ACORN hired turned in bogus names and collected money for those bogus names. ACORN reported the fraud. None of those bogus people will ever show up to vote, so there is no voter fraud. The only fraud is that people got paid for work they did not do.

2. Obama''s "association" with ACORN was 13 years old, when he was their lawyer for one case. His Co-council in that case was THE US JUSTICE DEPARTMENT! Any "guilt by association" must therefore be applied to the US government as well. (But there is none.)

3. John McCain''s association with ACORN occurred just TWO YEARS AGO! All of you McCain supporters who are complaining about Obama and ACORN better set your sights on Johnny next! (McCain was the featured speaker at an ACORN event, and he praised them all to high heaven!)

Repugs have NOTHING but mindless distractions. They can''t run on the issues, since they''re on the wrong side of every issue. They can''t run on personality, since Johnny boy is a foul-tempered hot-head who nearly everyone in his own party hates.

What have they left to run on? I.G.N.O.R.A.N.C.E
McCain is counting on all of you to be ig.norant, to vote for him so he can continue Bush''s destruction of this country!

Don''t fall for the republican lies.

[idnnsg]

yourpointis said, "Obama DID work with and for Acorn. You can read it all over the place. If the tables were turned and it was McCain in this article..."

But MCCAIN IS ASSOCIATED WITH ACORN, AND MUCH MORE RECENTLY THAN ANYTHING THAT LINKS OBAMA WITH ACORN!!! Two years ago MCain was their featured speaker. And the reason you haven''t seen McCain''s connection spread all over the place is that the media IS NOT liberally biased, and because liberals are intelligent enough to know that this is a non-story, not voter fraud at all, and the only reason it has become a story is because McCain is using it to brainwash all you id.iots.

[idnnsg]

ritewingman said, "Try and parse the difference between "registration" fraud and "voting" fraud, but the fact is that these radicals are committing crimes and are being prosecuted for it."

"These radicals"??? Who you talkin'' ''bout? Poor people, hired by ACORN to register new voters, cheat ACORN by writing in bogus names. ACORN discovers the bogus names and flags them. Later, county election remove them from the voter lists. At no time to any of the non-existent voters show up to vote. And the repugs use this as an excuse to purge hundreds of thousands of OTHER voters from the voting lists, preventing good citizens from exercising their constitutional right to vote. THAT is the real voter fraud, and it isn''t ACORN, and it isn''t "radicals"... it''s the republiSCUM machine, doing its best to rig the election!!!

[idnnsg]

ritewingman made this accusation: "why his [Obama''s] campaign just gave ACORN over $800K."

The Obama campaign hired an affiliate of ACORN to do some canvassing during the primaries. That is NOT voter registration. That is NOT voter fraud. That is NOT some kind of illegal act. That is NOTHING to feel guilty about.

Yet somehow, to the very gullible, very afraid, insecure mindless little dweebs that make up the republican base, that''s "scary"! You repugs are simply id.iots!

[robert2237]

Don''t believe that Obama new about this illigal actions. But he was assocciated with the group and did law and training work with them, but there is no indication that he knew anything about this. But I do know that if it was McCain that had done this work for them and had paid one of their org. $800K to do work, the liberals would be jumping up and down. We have come to expect that since it seems their guy does nothing wrong which we all know is completely wrong everybody does things they shouldn''t when running a campaing. So in the end there will be a number of ACORN employees who are taken to court and found guilty of wrong doing. Now spending a lot of time on this thinking it is going to take Obama down is foolish. Obama will go down if people really start looking into his votes and ideals otherwise we will have him for 4 years unless he is impeached, if not we will get a new president in 2012 and then that person will have to do a lot of repair to our country.

[robert2237]

pipemajor2- The direction of this country has been set by the Dem. the last two years and now there is 90% of the people think it is going in the wrong direction. I question why someone would vote for Obama since he is part of the ruling party in the congress and senate. Remember the president repesents the Union he does not make the decissions on how we do anything he suggests and the congress and senate passes the laws.

[nearl4511]

Yeah, ACORN was looked into after the 2004 and 2006 elections. Minor issues. Mostly Republican hype because new voters tend to vote Democrat.

[nearl4511]

By the way...Robert, you are an idiot or a troll.

2 years in power does not a financial disaster make. It was made over decades of cascaded deregulation with the final crowning cherry in 1999.