October 12, 2004

ACORN Involved in Voter Registration Fraud in Pennsylvania?

More signs of voter registration fraud attempted in a battleground state: The Reading Eagle in Reading, Pennsylvania, reports:

Berks County elections officials said Monday that they’ve found several hundred problems with new registrations from voter-drive groups, including non-existent addresses, slightly changed birth dates and changed party affiliations. The tax-exempt groups conducting the new voter registrations turned in nearly 13,000 forms by the Oct. 4 deadline and about 2,000 of them have been processed, Elections Director V. Kurt Bellman said.

Bellman said he expects the number of problem registrations to rise to several thousand by the time the 13,000 forms are processed, and he plans to ask the county board of elections to seek a federal probe of potential voter fraud.

ACORN claims to have registered 1 million voters nationwide, in conjunction with Project Vote:

For over a year, ACORN and Project Vote have been registering voters in low and moderate income neighborhoods and communities of color throughout the country to ensure that low and moderate income families have a voice in the upcoming election and all future elections.

To register voters, ACORN members and staff have been knocking on the doors of hundreds of thousands of low-income and working families in ACORN neighborhoods and making contact with potential voters who are traditionally left out of the political mainstream. Our voter registration crews also target high traffic areas like shopping centers and grocery stores, and special events like street festivals, sporting events, naturalization ceremonies and hip-hop concerts.

In many states, ACORN has surpassed our voter registration goals – registering 187,510 voters in Florida, 158,036 voters in Ohio, and 120,862 voters in Pennsylvania.