ACORN fraud and other Democratic voting shenanigans across the country

The radical group ACORN has been working for the Obama campaign since its inception - despite its tax status as a "non-partisan" organization with offices in dozens of cities, ACORN has been the sharp end of the stick in the Obama's campaign drive to register millions of new voters.

Recently, several irregularities in ACORN voter registrations have come to light that beg the question whether there is a widespread, systematic effort to steal the 2008 election by faking registrations for hundreds of thousands of people in key states.

Investors Business Daily details just a few of the allegations:

In Nevada, state officials say the fraudulent registrations included forms for the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team, including quarterback Tony Romo.

"Romo is not registered to vote in the state of Nevada," Secretary of State Ross Miller said, "and anybody trying to pose as Terrell Owens won't be able to cast a ballot on Nov. 4."

While those names will be flagged on Election Day, felonious voters may have better luck using other cutouts. Nevada, along with several other key battleground states, requires no ID to vote.

In North Carolina, where Obama has been running nonstop ads, ACORN has registered a record number of new voters, many of them suspicious. Statewide, Democrats are doing better than the GOP in new converts - even in traditionally Republican counties.

There have been 218,749 newly registered Democrats in North Carolina since January - more than five times the 38,337 new Republicans, state records show.

The numbers show a startlingly close political battle even in Republican-dominated Union County, with 4,233 new voters registering as Democrats and 4,362 as Republicans. In previous election years, new Republicans have outnumbered Democrats 2-to-1 in the fast-growing Charlotte-area county.

In Missouri, one ACORN registrant named Monica Rays showed up on no less than eight forms, all bearing the same signature.

The FBI just raided ACORN headquarters in Nevada as a result of an investigation that revealed thousands of bogus registrations.

There have also been other reports of fraud in registering voters by ACORN. Jim Geraghty of NRO's The Campaign Spot has the dirt from Ohio:

The group has faced similar inquiries in other large Ohio counties. And Nevada state authorities recently raided ACORN's Las Vegas headquarters searching for evidence of fraud, according to the Associated Press.

...Cuyahoga election workers flagged about 50 names on suspicious cards. The cards were to register the same names, raising the possibility that canvassers shared information when trying to make quotas.

...Kris Harsh, ACORN's head Cleveland organizer, blamed the elections board for not scrutinizing ACORN's suspicious cards. He said the group can't be expected to catch everything.

The New York Post has an article detailing ACORN's tactics in getting people to register:

Two Ohio voters, including Domino's pizza worker Christopher Barkley , claimed yesterday that they were hounded by the community-activist group ACORN to register to vote several times, even though they made it clear they'd already signed up.

Barkley estimated he'd registered to vote "10 to 15" times after canvassers for ACORN, whose political wing has endorsed Barack Obama, relentlessly pursued him and others.

Claims such as his have sparked election officials to probe ACORN.

"I kept getting approached by folks who asked me to register," Barkley said. "They'd ask me if I was registered. I'd say yes, and they'd ask me to do it [register] again.

"Some of them were getting paid to collect names. That was their sob story, and I bought it," he said.

This fraud in Ohio goes hand in hand with the highly suspect actions of Ohio's Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner as reported by Soren Dayton at PJ Media:

The first thing she did was issue an advisory opinion allowing people to register and vote on the same day, during the "overlap" between the beginning of early voting (35 days out) and the end of registration (30 days out). This was a reversal of the 2006 precedent. Republicans asked how someone could register and vote on the same day when Ohio statute says that you have to be registered 30 days before voting. She answered that when you vote by no-fault absentee you aren't voting. Your vote occurs on election day when it is counted, not on the day you cast it.

There is one problem with same-day registration and voting: the registration may not be valid, and if it is not, then the vote shouldn't be counted. Consequently, Brunner recommended that ballots cast (but not "voted") by same-day registrants must be cast on paper and be treated as provisional ballots until the registration is validated. Election Journal, a conservative website that documents election shennanigans, interviewed two people (in Lucas County and in Franklin County ) who registered and voted on electronic voting machines in violation of Ohio election rules. If those registrations are valid, nothing can be done to remove those cast votes.

The second thing she did was to issue an advisory opinion advising county election officials that Ohio law does not require that partisan election observers be allowed to observe registration and voting. This is contrary to the practice on election day and a reversal of the 2006 precedent. Two of the largest counties, Montgomery (containing Dayton) and Franklin (containing Columbus), did not allow Republican election observers to enter the polling place. Media, however, were allowed.

Brunner even tried throwing out absentee ballots sent out by the McCain campaign because of a small box added in the corner. The GOP fought that one in court and won. They weren't so lucky in other cases. And because of it, no one knows how much fraud was committed during Ohio's early voting period.

Legitimate questions are being raised as to whether the Obama campaign is knowledgeable of or involved in these fraudulent schemes. Obama's close ties to ACORN make the idea that his campaign was not aware of what the organization was doing for him unbelievable.

Will the press stand by while the Democrats steal the election? Why not. They've shown little interest in vetting Obama to this point so why should we think they will act any differently now?

Barack Obama: Fraud we can believe in.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky, Tom Lifson