[JURIST] The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) [advocacy website] has been hit with new voter fraud allegations stemming from an aggressive voter registration drive focusing on helping poor people overcome obstacles to the ballot. Philadelphia has reported 3,000 invalid voting cards submitted by ACORN since April because of missing or inaccurate information, noting that four different people have been submitting questionable applications on behalf of ACORN and three of those people have prior criminal records [Philadelphia Inquirer report]. In addition, three counties in Ohio have found hundreds of problematic voter registration cards submitted by ACORN, including invalid addresses, forged signatures and one application for a deceased person, while in Colorado Denver County election officials have flagged 200 voter application cards for review after noticing signatures with similar handwriting.

ACORN is running a voter registration drive in 17 states and faces the accusations on the eve of Congressional mid-term elections. ACORN also faced fraud allegations in 2004 [EPI report] in Ohio, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina and Virginia, as well as 2003 fraud allegations in Missouri. ACORN registered more than 1,000,000 voters for the 2004 elections, and successfully challenged [JURIST report] an Ohio law subjecting individuals to criminal penalties for aiding or abetting anyone in fraudulently registering or improperly submitting application cards. AP has more.