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Conn. looking into voter cards submitted by ACORN
By AP STAFF
Associated Press
October 10, 2008

HARTFORD, Conn. - The State Elections Enforcement Commission is looking into a complaint alleging that a community advocacy group submitted fraudulent voter registration cards in Bridgeport.

Joseph Borges, Bridgeport's Republican registrar of voters, filed the complaint. He said he has found problems with numerous voter registration cards submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which works to register low-income people.

In one instance, he says a card was filled out for a 7-year-old girl, whose age was listed as 27 on the card.

ACORN filed more than 8,000 cards in Bridgeport. The complaint involves 10, but Borges said there were problems with many others.

The group, which said it has registered some 1.3 million voters nationwide this year, is facing similar allegations in several other states including Nevada, Wisconsin, North Carolina, New Mexico, Michigan, Ohio and Missouri.

ACORN works in low-income communities that trend Democratic. Republicans have used the reports of fraud to raise questions about the possibility of more widespread misdeeds and Election Day antics, such as using phony voter registrations to cast absentee ballots.

"This is a group that is knowingly and actively breaking the law across the country," said Sean Cairncross, the chief counsel for the Republican National Committee, which held a conference call Thursday to discuss the fraud allegations.

Republicans say there are also problems with about 600 cards filed by ACORN in Stamford. But Nancy Nicolescu, a spokeswoman with the enforcement commission, said the agency had not received a complaint about Stamford as of Thursday afternoon.

ACORN said the complaints are part of a coordinated effort by Republicans to discredit ACORN voter registration drives across the nation. The groups officials have said there workers are paid and evaluated based on how many registrations they turn in.

"It is our policy to turn in all cards, even those we know to be problematic, to the local Board of Elections," Sharon Patterson-Stallings, a member of the Connecticut ACORN Board, said in a written statement Thursday. "Any problematic cards that we identify are clearly designated by our quality control department before turn in."

"We find it shameful that elections officials declined to meet with us to discuss these concerns and resolve issues while our drive was still underway, but have chosen now less than a month before the election to publicly attack our work," she said.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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