ACORN’s Dilemma

John McCain has accused the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now of trying to commit “one of the greatest frauds in voter history” by submitting fraudulent voter registration forms, but ACORN says it was required by law to submit the forms. The Center for Investigative Reporting explains.

Center for Investigative Reporting:

But Nevada’s law also forbids “knowingly falsifying an application to register to vote.” Ostensibly that’s why the secretary of state is looking into ACORN’s records to begin with: The group turned in obviously false registration forms. But that’s a separate part of the law and does not change ACORN’s obligation to turn in all the forms. In short, it’s not clear that in Nevada ACORN was wrong to turn in the forms; indeed, it appears the group was trying to follow the law.

While voter registration law does vary state by state, ACORN follows the same procedure across the country. All of the secretary of state’s offices PaperTrail contacted, however, said that third-party registration groups should turn in fraudulent-looking forms, but can flag them to alert election officials to their suspicions.

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