An activist organization on Tuesday defended its voter registration practices amid new allegations of voter fraud and a call from Republican lawmakers to investigate irregularities.
In Ohio, a key swing state in an election that is won on a state-by-state basis, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama told reporters that the group’s registration problems should not be used by the Republicans as an excuse to keep voters from turning out on Election Day.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN, has registered 1.3 million young people, minorities and poor and working-class voters, the group says.
Some of those registration cards have become the focus of fraud investigations in Nevada, Connecticut, Missouri and at least five other states. Election officials also recently questioned the group’s voter forms in Ohio and North Carolina, a southern state that is normally a safe bet for Republicans but is now up for grabs.
More than 13,000 workers in 21 states recruited low-income voters, who tend to be Democrats.
“The vast, vast majority were dedicated workers,” ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan said at a news conference on Tuesday. “They did something remarkable in bringing all these new voters.”
On Monday, election officials in Ohio’s most populous county asked a prosecutor to probe multiple registrations by four people who signed up through ACORN. One voter said he signed 73 voter registration forms over a five-month period.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections is reviewing suspect voter forms from at least two counties.
Meanwhile, House Republicans have also renewed their push for the Justice Department to investigate the group. On Friday, six Republican leaders wrote to US Attorney General Michael Mukasey to urge him to make sure ballots by ineligible or fraudulent voters are not counted on Nov. 4.
A law enforcement official said ACORN has been on the radar of federal investigators. But the official would not say whether an investigation has been opened, and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue so close to the presidential election.
Whelan said ACORN staffers separate applications with missing or false information and flag them for election officials. All applications, including problematic cards, are handed in because some state laws require it, he said.
Whelan said he did not know how many registration cards had problems but believed it was a small percentage. He was unsure how many workers were fired for purposely turning in duplicates or applications with fake information, he said.
“If they look false, we identify them as such,” Whelan said of the forms.
ACORN has been drawn into a back-and-forth between the presidential campaigns.
Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain’s campaign on Tuesday accused Obama of having close ties to the group.
“Obama has a responsibility to rein in ACORN and prove that he’s willing to fight voter fraud,” said McCain’s running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, in an interview with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday.
Obama and two other lawyers in 1995 represented ACORN in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois to make voter registration easier. During this year’s primary, Obama hired a firm with ties to the group for a massive get-out-the-vote effort.
Obama told reporters on Tuesday that ACORN was not advising his campaign on voter registration.
Last week, McCain called for a federal investigation of the organization during a campaign rally. His campaign manager, Rick Davis, has said Obama’s connection to the activist group should be investigated.
“This is another one of those distractions that get stirred up during the campaign,” Obama said.
Separately on Tuesday, the Buckeye Institute, a conservative think tank in Columbus, Ohio, filed a lawsuit against ACORN over its voter registration drives.
The lawsuit, filed in Warren County Common Pleas Court, alleges that the group engages in a pattern of corrupt activity that amounts to organized crime and seeks its dissolution.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese