EDITORIAL: Lake County election hijinks must end

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| Tuesday, October 07, 2008 | (8 comment(s))

With Indiana up for grabs in the presidential election for the first time in decades, new and updated voter registrations have come in at a furious pace. Now it's time to carefully sift through them.

Lake County Elections Board Director Sally LaSota said more than 12,000 voter registration forms need to be processed from recent days.

Porter County has processed at least 3,500 voter applications since the May primary.

But it wouldn't be an election in Lake County without fears of election hijinks.

LaSota said of the 2,000 new voter applications dropped off Monday by members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, "about 1,100 are no good."

Hundreds of other applications among the 5,000 forms ACORN submitted in Lake County prior to this week contained incomplete information, unreadable handwriting or are otherwise unusable.

Some ACORN representatives apparently pulled names and addresses from telephone books and forged their signatures. One of the clues was when "Jimmy John" was listed as an applicant on a form that listed the address of a Crown Point sandwich restaurant named, of course, "Jimmy John's."

Another application that was singled out listed the name and address of a Gary man who died Nov. 16.

It isn't unheard of for dead people to vote in Lake County, but registering to vote for the first time?

ACORN said Monday its administrators screened out the 1,100 registration forms in question and warned Lake County officials. An ACORN spokesman said the organization has fired and reported to law enforcement any of employees suspected of vote fraud.

ACORN said Monday its administrators screened out the 1,100 registration forms in question and warned Lake County officials. An ACORN spokesman said the organization has fired and reported to law enforcement any of employees suspected of vote fraud.

Lake County Republican Chairman John Curley last week asked for a federal investigation into hundreds of voter registrations bearing fictitious signatures or the names of dead and underage people. That's a good suggestion.

Confidence in the government requires confidence in the electoral process.

Now that the deadline for registering to vote has passed in Indiana -- today is the last day in Illinois -- make sure fraudulent applications are tossed out so we can have a clean election this year.

We can't afford to compromise the electoral process.

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win above country wrote on Oct 7, 2008 3:12 PM:

" Shows the Obama will place winning above country.
" ACORN office in Vegas raided in voter-fraud probe.
Indiana is Not the first state ACORN has tried to place flawed forms and is a Big Obama network. "

To Dobie wrote on Oct 7, 2008 12:24 PM:

" Move across the State Line to Illinois if you don't like it. They always vote for losers (democrats). "

This isnt Lake County wrote on Oct 7, 2008 8:34 AM:

" Lake County is trying to stop this, if Lake County were a part of this, all those registrations would have slid in. This is Chicago Politics, this is Obama supporters at work. Heaven help us if he wins. So far his big supporters have been Acorn, a hateful preacher who hates America, another preacher who threatened him with bodily harm, and possibly Ayers. We don't need Obama's supporters helping him in the White House. "

simple wrote on Oct 7, 2008 8:13 AM:

" ACORN is not to be trusted. When you pay people by the amount of people they get it just make fraud more likely. Simple fact is the Dems will try to steal the election any way they can. This is just proof of that. A private agency should not be allowed to register voters. "

Yea Right wrote on Oct 7, 2008 6:32 AM:

" Acorn fired the employees and warned public officials that 1100 registrations may be bad. What if they had not been caught? Those employees must be prosecuted and ACORN should be subject a local, state and federal investigations of their practices with a Grand Jury convened. We're all angry about corporate Wall Street types ripping off our economy, while these activist main street people are ripping off our government! "

Its not Lake County wrote on Oct 7, 2008 6:18 AM:

" This is ACORN, this is Chicago style fraud at its finest, this is the Hope and Change Obama supporters, if he wins this group will have WON. Vote for an honest election this November, vote R. "

Dobie wrote on Oct 7, 2008 6:02 AM:

" Sorry to differ, but Indiana will not really figure in the Presidential election unless giving their 11 electorial votes to the losing GOPers Mc Cain and his silly cohort count! "

dump em wrote on Oct 7, 2008 3:34 AM:

" I think ALL of the voter registrations acquired thru or by ACORN should be dumped. ALL OF THEM. Why go thru the expensive, time-consuming process of sorting thru all the registrations when we already know a large percentage is illegal? It'll serve 'em right. Don't count any of them. For the few honest registrations (you know who you are) sorry, but you'll have to register once again if you want to vote. "

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