What’s Behind The ACORN Raid?Yesterday, we told you about the raid conducted by Nevada state authorities on the Las Vegas office of ACORN.
The office of Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller has been telling reporters that the raid was prompted by complaints by Clark County officials about fraudulent voting forms being submitted by the group, which works to register low-income voters. An affidavit released by the state today described forms being received with the same name, as well as with fraudulent addresses and with personal information that did not match state records.
But the state has still not said how many such forms were submitted. Bob Walsh, a spokesman for the Secretary of State, told TPMmuckraker that the office is working to answer that question.
In a statement released yesterday, ACORN called the raid a “bogus attack” and asserted that it has “BENT OVER BACKWARDS to identify fraud and to encourage the Board of Elections to prosecute fraud.”
But we’re still puzzled by something: Republicans have a long history of clashing with ACORN, whose mission to register low-income and minority voters serves the cause of Democrats. So it’s not clear what, beyond the immediate allegations, prompted Miller, a Democrat, to launch a high-profile raid of a major voter registration organization four weeks before election day.
According to Walsh, Miller, who has a background as a prosecutor, has always made law and order a priority. And ACORN does have a history of being less than fastidious about preventing small-scale fraud by canvassers who are paid per registration form they bring in. So perhaps this is nothing more than a state official being vigilant in upholding the law.
As more facts become clear, we’ll keep you posted.