11 ACORN workers accused of voter fraud

MIAMI – Eleven people hired to register potential voters in Miami-Dade County before last year’s presidential election were being sought Wednesday, accused of falsifying hundreds of voter registration cards.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office issued arrest warrants for each of the 11 suspects, all of whom worked for the local chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

ACORN came under fire during last year’s presidential campaign when Republicans and other conservative groups accused the national organization of committing fraud in its aggressive voter registration efforts in various cities and counties nationwide.

But ACORN officials said they had alerted authorities about the alleged illegal activity among some canvassers in Miami-Dade.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle praised ACORN.

“We’ve been very aggressive about a lot of these cases,” she said. “But we would not have known about these workers unless ACORN brought it to us.

“It’s really minor, ineffectual attempts to justify getting paid on an hourly basis.”