Call for probe of ACORN panned

[IndianaGreen]

Call for probe of ACORN panned
(http://www.post-trib.com/1245327,lcvote.article)

October 28, 2008

By John Byrne Post-Tribune staff writer

Citing widespread evidence of vote fraud in Lake County, Secretary of State Todd Rokita has called on local and federal officials to launch a criminal investigation into the community group ACORN.

In a letter to law enforcement agencies made public Monday, Rokita said his office found problems with most of the 1,438 voter applications the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now had submitted to the Election Office in Crown Point.

"This is not simple registration fraud," Rokita wrote in a letter to Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI and Attorney General Steve Carter.

But during a conference call with reporters Monday, Bob Bauer, general counsel for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, dismissed Rokita's charges as part of a Republican "smear campaign."

"We've seen this orchestrated effort on the part of Republican officials across the country to work with the McCain-Palin ticket and the Republican National Committee to disseminate a message of fraud," Bauer said.

"But never do we see concrete examples that illegal ballots are being cast," he added.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. Is that supposed to be "planned"?

[JeffR]

2. "Panned" works pretty well. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

3. Panned it is. Here is the ulterior motive by GOP: vote suppression

So many new registrations have flooded into the election office in recent weeks that the Lake County Election Board asked the Secretary of State to waive the seven-day wait so thousands more names can be automatically added to the poll books.

But Rokita believes Lake County needs the "added scrutiny" of entering the names manually, according to Secretary of State's Office spokesman Jim Gavin.

"We're interested in the scenario that ensures the largest number of eligible voters can vote, while maintaining the highest level possible of scrutiny," Gavin said.

Rokita's denial means that potentially thousands of Lake County voters will need to be verified by election officials Nov. 4 before they can cast ballots, because their names will not appear in the poll books at their precincts.