(Columbus) - In a stunning development, the Democrat activist group ACORN - a frequent and influential advisor to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner - now publicly admits that its Ohio staff engages in election fraud.
According to The Plain Dealer, "The group blamed inefficiency and lack of resources for problems such as being unable to spot duplicate voter-registration cards or cards that may have been filled out by workers to make quotas." ACORN is under investigation by Cuyahoga County elections officials for submitting fraudulent voter registrations among the 65,000 forms submitted to the county board of elections.
The Plain Dealer reported in August:
Board employees said ACORN workers often handed in the same name on a number of voter registration cards, but showing that person living at different addresses. Other times, cards had the same name listed, but a different date of birth. Still another sign of possible fraud showed a number of people living at an address that turned out to be a restaurant. (Plain Dealer, 8/27/08)
Ohio ACORN officials "blamed the elections board for not scrutinizing ACORN's suspicious cards," claiming the group "can't be expected to catch everything."
ACORN is facing similar inquires in other Ohio counties as well as 10 other states. Members of the group's "voter-mobilization arm," Project Vote, regularly advise Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on election strategy, even issuing a news release claiming credit for Brunner's recent efforts to restrict challenges suspected fraudulent voter registrations.
"These troubling reports of election fraud raise serious concerns about Jennifer Brunner's refusal to allow observers during the early voting process," said Ohio Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine. "She takes her marching orders from these groups, and she's complicit in their efforts to cover up this shady and illegal activity."
Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama also has deep ties to ACORN, formerly working as a "leadership trainer" for the group's activists and representing its legal interests as an attorney. Obama also used his political influence to secure federal funding for ACORN.
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FOR THE RECORD: ACORN's Ohio Fraud File
The Columbus Dispatch, 5/9/07: In what might be a Franklin County first, a Reynoldsburg man was indicted yesterday for voting twice in the November election. ... [An attorney] said Gilbert was registered in both counties by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for
Reform Now, a nonprofit agency that has come under fire in 12 states for voter fraud.
Associated Press, 9/20/06: The mother of a 16-year-old has told the Summit County elections board that her daughter was registered to vote, just two months after a 10-year-old boy was summoned for jury duty because he was on the county's voter rolls. ...The board plans to issue subpoenas to the girl and the person who filed the voter registration application, Prentice McNary of Akron, a circulator paid by Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, [board director Bryan] Williams said.
The Columbus Dispatch, 9/1/06: Concerns about bogus names increased recently as Franklin County Elections Board staffers questioned the validity of hundreds of names on registration forms and petitions for a proposed constitutional amendment to boost Ohio's minimum wage. Most of the disputed names came from lists provided by paid solicitors working for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
The Columbus Dispatch, 8/30/06: Franklin County elections officials plan to issue subpoenas to paid solicitors suspected of forging hundreds of signatures on ballot-issue petitions and voter-registration forms. ... Most have come from people paid by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which was blamed for similar problems with voter-registration forms in 2004.
The Plain Dealer, 8/11/06: Potentially fraudulent voter registration cards have turned up in at least three Ohio counties, and 500 have been turned over to a prosecutor to determine if a crime has been committed. Matt Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, said the 500 cards his office referred to County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien Wednesday were collected between March and July by workers for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/23/04: Cuyahoga County election officials are investigating more than a thousand possible fraudulent voter registrations - including one for Jive Turkey Sr. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Friday that the name is one in a string of fake names on new voter rolls. Others include Dick Tracy, Mary Poppins and Michael Jordan in Defiance County.
The Columbus Dispatch, 9/8/04: A part-time worker signing up new voters for a local community group has been indicted by a Franklin County grand jury on charges he forged a registration form. ... The charges stem from an investigation that began in May after the Franklin County Board of Elections discovered dozens of voter registration forms with fake names or false information. They were submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which paid workers bonuses based on the number of voters they registered.
The Columbus Dispatch, 6/3/04: A nonprofit group registering low-income and minority voters in Franklin County has fired two temporary workers thought to be the source of fake names and forged signatures on official registration forms. ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also has agreed to perform extra checks on forms turned in by its voter-registration workers before submitting them to the Franklin County Board of Elections, the group's head organizer said yesterday.
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"Well, I tell you what, it helps in Ohio that we've got Democrats in charge of the machines."
- Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama (Columbus Dispatch)
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