[Vision2020] Obama ACORN and Barack don’t care

[No Weatherman]

Voter fraud is making a direct attack against our democracy in plain
sight of day for all of America to watch and see, yet I don't see any
outrage — not even some of that smug, self-righteous indignation —
that has been a hallmark of this forum:

Thousands of voter registration forms faked, officials say

CROWN POINT, Indiana (CNN) — More than 2,000 voter registration forms
filed in northern Indiana's Lake County by a liberal activist group
this week have turned out to be bogus, election officials said
Thursday.

An official enters the Las Vegas, Nevada, ACORN office, which is under
investigation for alleged voter fraud.

The group — the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now,
or ACORN — already faces allegations of filing fraudulent voter
registrations in Nevada and faces investigations in other states.

And in Lake County, home to the long-depressed steel town of Gary, the
bipartisan Elections Board has stopped processing a stack of about
5,000 applications delivered just before the October 6 registration
deadline after the first 2,100 turned out to be phony.

"All the signatures looked exactly the same," Ruthann Hoagland, a
Republican on the board. "Everything on the card filled out looks
exactly the same."

The forms included registrations submitted in the names of the dead —
and in one case, the name of a fast-food restaurant, Jimmy Johns.
Sally LaSota, a Democrat on the board, called the forms fraudulent and
said whoever filed them broke the law.

"ACORN, with its intent, perhaps was good in the beginning, but went
awry somewhere," LaSota said.

Over the past four years, a dozen states have investigated complaints
of fraudulent registrations filed by ACORN. On Tuesday, Nevada
authorities raided an ACORN office in Las Vegas, Nevada, where workers
are accused of registering members of the Dallas Cowboys football
team. And the group has become the target of Republican attacks on
voter fraud, a perennial GOP issue.

A subsidiary of the group was paid $800,000 by Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama's campaign to register voters for the 2008
primaries, and ACORN's political wing endorsed Obama back in February.
But Obama's campaign told CNN that it "is committed to protecting the
integrity of the voting process," and said it has not worked with
ACORN during the general election.

Brian Mellor, an ACORN attorney in Boston, said the group has its own
quality-control process and has fired workers in the past — including
workers in Gary. But he said allegations that his organization
committed fraud is a government attempt to keep people
disenfranchised.  Watch more about this investigation »

"We believe their purpose is to attack ACORN and suppress votes,"
Mellor said. "We believe that by attacking ACORN, they are going to
discourage people that have registered to vote with ACORN from
voting."

CNN was unable to reach ACORN officials in Gary and in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, where the group's Indiana operation is based. Offices in
both cities were empty when reporters visited.

Lake County elections officials have set aside all 5,000 of the
ACORN-submitted applications in what Hoagland called the "fake pile"
for later review. But she said every one will be reviewed before the
election to make sure no legitimate voters are skipped.

There has been no evidence of voter fraud yet, because voters have yet
to go to the polls. But elections officials say they will be sending
their information to prosecutors, who will determine whether any
investigation will begin.

"We have no idea what the motive behind it is," she said. "It's just
overwhelming to us."
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/09/acorn.fraud.claims/index.html


Ohio secretary of state must verify registrations
By TERRY KINNEY
CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered Ohio's top
elections official to verify the identity of newly registered voters
by matching them with other government documents.

U.S. District Judge George C. Smith in Columbus ruled that Ohio
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must perform verification required
by the Help America Vote Act. That includes matching new registrants'
information against information in databases maintained by the Ohio
Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration.

The order was the result of a lawsuit the Ohio Republican Party filed
against Brunner, a Democrat.

"Plaintiffs assert, and the court agrees, that it is hard to imagine a
public interest more compelling than safeguarding the legitimacy of
the election of the president of the United States," Smith wrote in
his ruling.

Brunner also was ordered to establish a process by which Ohio's 88
county election boards can access information generated by the checks.

Residents registering to vote must provide their name, address, date
of birth and either their driver's license number or the last four
digits of their Social Security number.

Brunner has said the state matches registration information against
data in the Bureau of Motor Vehicles system and the Social Security
database. But she also has said federal law doesn't say what should be
done if a mismatch is discovered, and it is up to counties to check
the system for flagged registrations and investigate if warranted.

An after-hours call seeking Brunner's comment on the ruling was not
immediately returned Thursday.

Republicans, who have been at odds frequently with Brunner, hailed the ruling.

"For some reason, Jennifer Brunner does not want these new
registrations checked," said Ohio Republican Party Deputy Chairman
Kevin DeWine. "Her refusal to comply with federal law raises serious
concerns about her ability to objectively oversee this election."

Separately Thursday, the sheriff in Greene County in southwest Ohio
requested registration cards and address change forms for all 302
people who registered to vote and cast ballots during the state's
weeklong same-day voting window, which ended Monday.

Sheriff Gene Fischer, a Republican, told elections officials he had
been flooded with telephone calls from people concerned about possible
fraud.

Greene County is home to five colleges or universities — Wright State,
Central State, Wilberforce and Cedarville universities and Antioch
College. Most of its students lean Democratic.

County Prosecutor Stephen Haller, who is representing Fischer, said
the records request was not politically motivated. Haller is a former
law partner of Mike DeWine, a former U.S. senator and chairman of the
Ohio campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

McCain's rival, Democrat Barack Obama, launched a major push to
attract new voters during the window, which was the subject of an
unsuccessful challenge by the Ohio Republican Party.

Lyn McCoy, the county's deputy elections director, said the records
request was being processed. Names, telephone numbers and Social
Security numbers will be blackened out before the documents are
release, she said.
___
Associated Press writer Julie Carr Smyh in Columbus, Ohio, contributed
to this report.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hUHafp1cxJ8ULtxqbf9fo0lw-pegD93NCBV00