Allegations of voter fraud stir both sides' ire

The stories are almost comical: Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, registered to vote Nov. 4. The entire starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team, signed up to go to the polls -- in Nevada.

But no one in either presidential campaign is laughing. Not publicly, anyway.

Republicans, led by John McCain, are alleging widespread voter fraud. Democrats and Barack Obama say the controversy is preposterous and just political mudslinging.

In the middle is the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN, a grass-roots community group that has led liberal causes since it formed in 1970. This year, ACORN hired more than 13,000 part-time workers and sent them out in 21 states to sign up voters in minority and poor neighborhoods.

They submitted 1.3 million registration cards to local election officials. Along the way, bogus ones appeared -- signed in the names of cartoon characters, professional football players and scores of others bearing the same handwriting. And in the past few days, those phony registrations have exploded into Republican condemnations of far-ranging misconduct.

LOOKING BEYOND the smoke and fire, the raging argument boils down to essentially this: Is ACORN, according to Mr. McCain, perpetuating voter fraud that could be "destroying the fabric of democracy"? Or are Republicans trying to keep the disadvantaged, who tend to be Democrats, from casting ballots in a hotly contested presidential race that has drawn record numbers of new voters?

By legal definition, to commit voter fraud means a person would have to present some kind of documentation at the polls -- a driver's license, a phone bill or another form of ID -- that bears the name of, for example, Mickey Mouse. To do so risks a fine and imprisonment under state laws.

Submitting fake registration cards is another matter. Local law enforcement agencies in about a dozen states are investigating fake registrations submitted by ACORN workers. The FBI will also be reviewing those cases.

"This is all just one big head-fake," said Tova Wang of the government watchdog group Common Cause. "It's all about creating this perception that there is a tremendous problem with voter fraud in this country, and it's not true."

Mr. Obama helped represent ACORN in a successful 1995 suit against Illinois, which forced enactment of the motor-voter law, making it easier for people to register to vote. Mr. Obama said last week that he had "nothing to do with" ACORN's massive voter registration drive.

ACORN spokesman Brian Kettenring fired back last week.

"What we're seeing is the manufacture of a crisis, and attempts to smear Sen. Obama with it. It gives you an excuse should you lose or if there's a contested outcome of the election." he said.

ACORN OFFICIALS have repeatedly said that their quality control workers were the first to discover problematic ballots. In every state investigating bad registrations, ACORN tipped off local officials to bogus or incomplete cards, Mr. Kettenring said.

Many states require that all registrations be submitted to local voting officials so election directors are in charge of vetting problem ballots, not the groups collecting them.

Part-time ACORN workers receive one day of training and are paid $8 an hour to collect signatures, Mr. Kettenring said. He blamed bogus cards on cheating and lazy employees.

When caught, Mr. Kettenring said, those workers are fired. The group is in the process of tallying the number of bad cards ACORN flagged for election officials, he said. Mr. Kettenring said he doubted the percentage would reach 2 percent.

Since the 2004 election, ex-employees have been convicted of submitting false registrations in states including Florida and Missouri.

"There are certainly problems, and I don't think anyone disagrees on that," Ms. Wang said. "But it doesn't get reported that ACORN finds these registrations errors themselves. They flag them as being no good, but they have to turn them in anyway."

FEW FRAUD CASES
Voter fraud is rare in the United States, according to a 2007 report by the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. Based on reviews of voter fraud claims at the federal and state level, the center's report asserted most problems were caused by things such as technological glitches, clerical errors or mistakes made by voters and by election officials.
"It is more likely that an individual will be struck by lightning than he will impersonate another voter at the polls," the report said.
Alex Keyssar, a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, calls the ACORN controversy "chapter 22 in a drama that's been going on awhile. The pattern is that nothing much ever comes from this. There have been no known cases of people voting fraudulently."