COURT REINS IN OHIO VOTER FRAUD - ACORN INVOLVED

COLUMBUS – With the nation watching not just Ohio’s voters but its voting process, Tuesday marked another tumultuous day of bitter partisan accusations over the security of Ohio’s elections – with new lawsuits, press conferences, calls for investigations and court decisions.

... The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is accused of registering fake or duplicate voters in a dozen states, including Ohio.

...


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

Late in the day – in a victory for Republicans – the full Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a decision made last week by three of its members. The result: Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner must create computer programs to cross check all new voter registrations so that county boards of elections can doublecheck new registrants.

...

“As far as we can tell, the problem with the current system (of cross-checking) is not that it is insufficiently user-friendly, but that it is effectively useless,” wrote Judge Jeffrey Sutton, writing for the majority.

Also Tuesday:

• In Lebanon, a lawsuit was filed against ACORN by a conservative research group, claiming votes are being diluted by fake or duplicate registrations. The suit filed by two Warren County residents seeks to dissolve ACORN under the Corrupt Activity Act.

• In Columbus, Mike Crites, a former U.S. Attorney and Republican candidate for Ohio attorney general, said ACORN should be investigated under the state or federal racketeering statutes for alleged fraud. “I’ve spent 20 years as a prosecutor so it’s not too hard to spot a bad apple – or in this case, a bad ACORN,” Crites said. If elected Nov. 4, Crites said his first day in office would be spent conferring with county prosecutors in large Ohio cities and Ohio’s federal prosecutors to begin gathering evidence of possible election fraud by ACORN and others.

• The Hamilton County Board of Elections is checking whether ACORN fraudulently submitted multiple voter registrations for people who don’t exist; The board has received at least 10,000 duplicate voter registrations this year and possibly thousands of fictitious ones, deputy director John William said earlier. Julie Wilson, a spokeswoman for Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, said Tuesday she could not comment on cases, but said, “Any violation of Ohio law Joe is going to treat seriously.”

• In Washington, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking the Department of Justice to immediately launch a nationwide criminal probe into ACORN’s voter registration activities and investigate ACORN as a “criminal enterprise.”