ACORN Defends Efforts Amid Voter-Fraud Allegations

[dateline] -- Voter fraud is a big concern for many Ohio boards of elections and now, the secretary of state's office is joining in.

The concern comes on the heels of ACORN, an advocacy group that works to register specific groups, and accusations of voter fraud, NBC 4's Paul Stelzer reported.

One person has one vote. That's the principle behind a lawsuit that is seeking the dissolution of ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

The Buckeye Institute, a conservative think tank in Columbus, filed the lawsuit in Warren County on Tuesday on behalf of two voters in southwest Ohio.
The Buckeye Institute claims ACORN submitted fraudulent voter registrations, and in doing so has diminished the power of legally registered voters.

"If you're one of 1,000 legitimate voters and 200 illegitimate votes are then added to that pool, then your vote is worth quantitatively less than it otherwise would be," said Maurice Thompson, of the Buckeye Institute.

An ACORN representative called the lawsuit "baseless." An e-mail from ACORN said, "ACORN has a zero tolerance policy (for voter registration fraud) and works closely with local elections officials to get to the bottom of any problems, as we have in this case."

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner issued a directive on Tuesday to all county boards of elections to investigate and report to her office any suspected cases of voter fraud.

"We have so many safety nets and safeguards in place to prevent someone who falsely registers or registers in more than one place to prevent them to actually carry that out and vote," Brunner said.

Brunner said voters can report suspected fraud to her office or to the local county boards of elections.

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