ACORN Inflated New Voter Count by 850K

Almost a third of its registrations have been rejected

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 24, 2008 2:39 AM CDT

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ACORN Inflated New Voter Count by 850K — A Florida canvassing board member examines a disputed ballot in 2000. The system of checks means few bogus registrations result in bogus votes, officials say. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

The community organizing group ACORN and Project Vote's boast of having signed up 1.3 million new voters was off by 850,000, reports the New York Times. Just 450,000 of the registrations represent genuine new voters. Another 450,000 were already-registered voters who changed their address, and 400,000 have been rejected for various reasons—including fraudulent submissions.

The issue has put the Democrats on the defensive, although ACORN officials says it is normal for many registrations to be rejected. Some 1.5% of the total were fraudulent, while other registrations were duplicates or incomplete. Most of the bogus registrations are believed to have come from low-paid workers trying to please their supervisors.
(More voter registration stories.)

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