Las Vegas ACORN office raided in voter registration fraud investigation

(Does anyone besides me think this image looks like a bomb with a fuse? Just wondering! VN8)


Posted: Oct 7, 2008 07:51 PM

Updated: Oct 7, 2008 08:00 PM

Allegations of voter registration fraud have been leveled against a local community group. On Tuesday morning investigators with the Secretary of State's Office seized documents and computers.

It has turned into a battle of words between ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, and election officials.

The investigation concerns a voter registration form. The allegation is that ACORN turned in registration forms with false names or multiple registrations with the same name or same information.

According to the Secretary of State's Office, at least one ACORN employee turned in completed voter registration forms that used the names of the Dallas Cowboys football team.

Secretary of State Ross Miller says he wants the investigation finished before voters go to the polls.

"We warned these groups time and time again that we weren't going to put up with any registration voter fraud because we don't want fraudulent names on the voter rolls because that's the safeguard for making sure only those people who are eligible to vote are able to cast ballots."

Frank Beaty with ACORN, in response, said, "For the past 10 months, anytime we identified a suspect card, we submitted that card separately to the Board of Elections and provided them the info they needed to prosecute who submitted that card."

Registrar of voters Larry Lomax is the person who determines which voter forms may be fraudulent. Lomax says ACORN is an organization with a dismal reputation when it comes to voter registration.

Lomax says employees have been working 15 hour days getting ready for the upcoming election. Many of them have been calling to re-verify registrations that for whatever reason may be suspicious or unusual.

Voters whose registration might be suspect could also be asked for photo ID when they vote. Lomax says he can't rely on ACORN to say which registration forms are good and which ones are bad.

Lomax says there is no reason to panic about the ACORN investigation, however. He encourages all voters to double check their election information by going to their county Web site and verifying their county information at either Clark County Election if you live in the Clark County area or County Clerk/Registrar of Voters'.