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Advocacy Blog
Thursday, October 05, 2006
ACORN: Suspected of Voting Registration Fraud
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a well respected advocacy group that has been very actively involved with voter registration drives with a particular focus on low income communities, is now being charged with negligence. In Philadelphia, 3,000 voter registration cards that ACORN submitted were rejected because of missing or invalid addresses and in Denver County about 200 cards were found to have similar handwriting on the signatures. The problems found with ACORN's voter registration cards range from nonexistent addresses to forged signatures. The organization disputes these allegations, citing inexperienced workers and says it is working to reduce these problems. ACORN plans to continue working to reduce voting obstacles for the poor.
ACORN was accused of submitting questionable voter registration cards in 2004 in Ohio, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina and Virginia, and in 2003 in Missouri. Prosecution is rare, and federal lawsuits accusing the group of fraud were dismissed in Florida.
ACORN, which has about 220,000 members nationally, registered 1.2 million people to vote in 2004 and is running voter registration drives in 17 states this year. ACORN recruits new voters in heavily Democratic poor and minority neighborhoods. The group says those areas are the most underrepresented in the political process.
The story can be read here.
Posted by Amanda Adams
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