Examiner Editorial: Feds must intervene in halting ACORN ballot abuse

It’s getting steadily more difficult to detect differences between an organized nationwide criminal conspiracy to commit voter fraud and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Thus far in the 2008 campaign, state election officials representing both major political parties in 15 states — including such key battlegrounds as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida — have accused ACORN of various schemes involving widespread voter fraud. The pattern is so pervasive and the danger to our electoral system so dire that it demands federal intervention.

The Justice Department’s indictment in 2005 of the Milberg Weiss securities class-action law firm under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act did not involve charges of mob involvement. Ultimately, the firm plea-bargained, and several of its senior partners now reside in federal prisons.

Likewise, ACORN’s repeated abuses don’t include mob links, but the pattern matches the organized criminal conduct RICO was passed to combat. If prosecutors don’t know where to start their investigation, here are four suggestions:
Indiana: In Indianapolis and surrounding Marion County, where ACORN has been active and early voting is allowed, the number of voter registrations exceeded the older-than-18 population by 5 percent.

Nevada: The secretary of state and attorney general, both Democrats, raided ACORN’s Las Vegas office last week, seizing eight computers and 20 boxes of documents. The search warrant alleges that 59 felons ACORN hired to register voters submitted hundreds of phony registrations, including the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.

Ohio: A 19-year-old Cleveland man told reporters that he signed 73 ACORN voter registration cards over a five-month period in exchange for cigarettes and cash. In Franklin County, 3,700 people who were registered by ACORN listed a vacant building as their home address.

Missouri: In April, eight ACORN workers in St. Louis pleaded guilty to charges of federal election fraud during the 2006 election. This year, election officials in Jackson County found fake addresses and Social Security numbers on hundreds of ACORN-submitted registrations. In Kansas City, “Monica Ray” was registered 20 times.

ACORN officials recently admitted in a media conference call that their quality-control process is “not perfect,” and they routinely claim that abuses are isolated incidents. That rationalization might have sounded reasonable when abuses were found in only a few states, but it strains credulity when serious questions arise in 15, including key battleground states.

This is especially true in light of the fact ACORN has endorsed Barack Obama and the vast majority of its new registrants are Democrats. Obama, whose campaign paid an ACORN subsidiary $800,000 to register new voters, has downplayed concerns about voter fraud, calling them a “distraction” from the issues. Stuffing the ballot box isn’t a distraction — it’s a felony. And it’s time the Justice Department did something about it.