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Oct 9, 2008 9:33 pm US/Eastern
Voter Fraud Probed In Allegheny County
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
Allegations of voter fraud have been sweeping the nation, and there is word of an investigation right here in Allegheny County.
The allegations are swirling around one community organization called ACORN, and District Attorney Stephen Zappala is taking a hard look.
ACORN is not affiliated with either presidential candidate, but here and elsewhere ACORN has been registering voters in low and moderate income neighborhoods that would seem to benefit Senator Barack Obama. And so these allegations of voter fraud have riled the McCain campaign.
"There are serious allegations of voter fraud in the battleground states across America," Presidential candidate Senator John McCain said. "They must be investigated, and no one should corrupt the most precious right we have and that is the right to vote."
"There appears to be a crime," Zappala says.
Right here in Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala confirms an investigation of potential voter fraud involving ACORN and other organizations.
"ACORN is part of this but there are other applications which have been filed which appear to have fraudulent signatures and fraudulent identifications of individuals," Zappala said.
Currently the election bureau is reviewing some 45,000 new registration applications and Zappala says some of them have forged signatures of people who may or may not exist.
"There are clearly people on these applications who have not either been solicited or may not exist and the signatures are clearly not - they're forgeries," Zappala says.
Sources say there are between 200 and 300 questionable registrations currently under investigation, and most of them were submitted by ACORN.
But Chief Coordinator Maryellen Hayden says her organization was not aware of the forgeries. She said some of the canvassers hired by ACORN forged the applications and then passed them off as genuine.
"There's eight people being investigated for putting down wrong names on cards," she said. "They frauded us so we're going to help them to be punished for frauding us because they took their salary and they didn't do their job."
ACORN says it is not aligned with any particular candidate, but is trying to give a voice to as many low income people as possible, so they have conducted registration campaigns in low income neighborhoods.
County voter registration workers are pouring over some 45,000 new applications.
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