[Vision2020] Is there ACORN fraud in Florida?

Chasuk chasuk at gmail.com
Thu Oct 16 16:10:38 PDT 2008


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-acorn1508oct15,0,1796049.story


TALLAHASSEE - It has become a hot issue in the Republican presidential
campaign and the conservative blogosphere: Is ACORN synonymous with
voter fraud?

For weeks, state and national Republicans have attacked the
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and its
voter-registration drives that have prompted complaints from North
Carolina to Nevada.

On Tuesday, Democrat Barack Obama's campaign struck back, calling the
recent attacks by John McCain and his surrogates efforts at voter
"suppression and intimidation."

And they got support from an unexpected source: Kurt Browning, who as
secretary of state oversees Florida's election system and who, at a
Tuesday briefing of the Cabinet, was asked about allegations of fraud
in voter registrations turned in by ACORN.

"We have not seen a persistent problem across the state of Florida,"
Browning said.

His comments followed questions by two Republicans, Agriculture
Commissioner Charles Bronson and Attorney General Bill McCollum, who
voiced concerns about the fraud allegations.

"There is an impression that it's fairly widespread in our state,"
McCollum said.

That impression has been fanned by RNC officials, who have said ACORN
and Obama's campaign are "engaged in a systemic effort to undermine
our election system."

ACORN -- which says it has registered 1.3 million young, minorities
and poor and working-class voters this year -- is being investigated
in at least eight states for irregular voter registrations. Nevada's
secretary of state said an ACORN worker signed up the starting lineup
of the Dallas Cowboys. Mickey Mouse tried to register in Orlando. An
Ohio man said he signed voter forms 73 times.

ACORN was paid $800,000 by the Obama campaign this year for voter
"canvassing," and its political arm has endorsed Obama -- facts the
GOP has seized on.

"This is a campaign that escalates every four years," said Brian
Kettenring, ACORN's Florida coordinator. "This year it's more
aggressively coordinated than ever before."

ACORN says it is forced by state laws to submit all the registrations
it gathers even if they look bogus, and has flagged suspicious cards
before submitting them.

Kettenring said the organization was still trying to determine whether
it flagged the "Mickey Mouse" registration in Orange County.

"We registered 1.3 million people. We're still going through the
records," he said.

Republican National Committee General Counsel Sean Cairncross has
called ACORN a "quasi-criminal" outfit, and McCain took jabs at the
organization last week in Wisconsin.

U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, and about three dozen U.S. House
members wrote the Justice Department on Sept. 16 urging an "immediate
investigation."

Feeney also wrote election officials in Brevard, Orange, Seminole and
Volusia counties, asking them to "exercise extreme vigilance in
examining voter registrations." He called on them to "make available
all ACORN-related registration of voters within the last two years."

The third-term congressman said he wanted those records in case of a
close election, which could happen both in the presidential race and
in Feeney's own race against a strong Democratic challenger, Suzanne
Kosmas.



More information about the Vision2020 mailing list