More Voter Registration Fraud...Now in Missouri....

[kshillbillys]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Officials in Missouri, a hard-fought jewel in the presidential race, are sifting through possibly hundreds of questionable or duplicate voter-registration forms submitted by an advocacy group that has been accused of election fraud in other states.

Charlene Davis, co-director of the election board in Jackson County, where Kansas City is, said the fraudulent registration forms came from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. She said they were bogging down work Wednesday, the final day Missourians could register to vote.

"I don't even know the entire scope of it because registrations are coming in so heavy," Davis said. "We have identified about 100 duplicates, and probably 280 addresses that don't exist, people who have driver's license numbers that won't verify or Social Security numbers that won't verify. Some have no address at all."

The nonpartisan group works to recruit low-income voters, who tend to lean Democratic. Polls show Republican presidential candidate John McCain with an edge in bellwether Missouri, but Democrat Barack Obama continues to put up a strong fight.

FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said the agency has been in contact with elections officials about potential voter fraud and plans to investigate.

"It's a matter we take very seriously," Patton said. "It is against the law to register someone to vote who does not fall within the parameters to vote, or to put someone on there falsely."

On Tuesday, authorities in Nevada seized records from ACORN after finding fraudulent registration forms that included the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.

In April, eight ACORN workers in St. Louis city and county pleaded guilty to federal election fraud for submitting false registration cards for the 2006 election. U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said they submitted cards with false addresses and names, and forged signatures.

Ordower said Wednesday that ACORN registered about 53,500 people in Missouri this year. He believes his group is being targeted because some politicians don't want that many low-income people having a voice.

"It's par for the course," he said. "When you're doing more registrations than anyone else in the country, some don't want low-income people being empowered to vote. There are pretty targeted attacks on us, but we're proud to be out there doing the patriotic thing getting people registered to vote."

Republicans are among ACORN's loudest critics. At a campaign stop in Bethlehem, Pa., supporters of John McCain interrupted his remarks Wednesday by shouting, "No more ACORN."

According to its national Web site, the group has registered 1.3 million people nationwide for the Nov. 4 election. It also has encountered complaints of fraud stemming from registration efforts in Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada and battleground states like Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina, where new voter registrations have favored Democrats nearly 4 to 1 since the beginning of this year.

Missouri offers 11 electoral votes; the presidential candidates need at least 270 to win the election.

[dnalexander]

If you are a voting American citizen that cares about your vote then this is an important topic no matter who you vote for. The proven incidents of voter fraud, mishandling, and questionable tactics is a topic that I feel is very overlooked. It happens more often than it should and is a threat to the democracy that I hold so dear. It is of concern to all of us in all of its' forms. My soapbox rant of the day.

David

[sixdogsmom]

I agree David, there is/was fraud and we need to get rid of it. I would not want my candidate elected by other than a legal mandate.

[Teresa]

Does anyone trust those electronic voting machines?
Which is better? The old fashioned way.. of counting.. ( which has to be near impossible with the amount of people and subject to human error) or the machine that sucks your vote in. Can they be set or manipulated to count a certain way?
Just wondering.

[pam]

The companies that invented those electronic machines tested and THEY proved it's not that hard to hack into em and change the votes, and there is NO paper trail to prove it. Everybody says they aren't tamper-proof.

[DanCookson]

I watched a show about that Pam and they could make that machine spit out any numbers it wanted....It was really interesting and REALLY scary.