Scrutiny of ACORN voter efforts widens

Washington —- An activist organization defended its voter-registration practices Tuesday amid new allegations of voter fraud and a call from Republican lawmakers to investigate irregularities.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN, has registered 1.3 million young people, minorities and poor and working-class voters, it 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 in Ohio and North Carolina also recently questioned the group’s voter forms.

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 investigate 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 GOP leaders wrote to Attorney General Michael Mukasey to urge him to make sure ballots by ineligible or fraudulent voters are not counted on Nov. 4.

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.

“If they look false, we identify them as such,” Whelan said.

ACORN has been drawn into the presidential campaigns.

Republican John McCain’s campaign on Tuesday said Barack Obama should rein in ACORN’s efforts in order to fight voter fraud. The campaign accuses the Democratic presidential candidate of having close ties to the group.

Obama told reporters on Tuesday that ACORN was not advising his campaign on voter registration.

“This is another one of those distractions that get stirred up during the campaign,” Obama said.