Danforth vs. ACORN

In a conference call, Former Senator John Danforth says fraudulent voter registrations by ACORN could send Election 2008 into overtime.

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"If you want to think of a nightmare in America, think about an election either where Sen. Obama wins a close election or loses a close election, and the losing side believes it's been cheated."

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ON OBAMA: "There is a clear connection between ACORN and Senator Obama. He's been endorsed by the ACORN PAC. He's taught classes for ACORN . . . It's a strong connection."

Sen. John Danforth expressed concern about possible fraudulent activity by ACORN in Missouri to register voters multiple times. Danforth only cited one specific instance in Independence where one individual registered "ten different times under different addresses and different social security numbers."

But the Republican added that "where it occurs in a large quantity . . . it could have an impact on the election."

ACORN stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. It claims it is the the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families.

Danforth made his statements in a late Wednesday afternoon conference call. None of the alleged activity by ACORN is occurring in Southwest Missouri, but Republicans point out that in a close election, Ozarks voters could see their ballots canceled out if fraud occurs in Missouri's two cities.

"It could be year 2000 revisited, but worse," Danforth warned. "If you want to think about a nightmare in America, think about an election where Sen. Obama wins a close election, or loses a close election, and the losing side believes it's been cheated," he added. He said no matter who wins, the goal should be to get the election behind us after November.

According to the Kansas City Star, Sen. Claire McCaskill said phony voter registration forms are not the same thing as voter fraud: "There has been no fraudulent voting...The people who claim this is a huge problem can never produce any instances where anyone voted fraudulently.

Danforth rebutted that claim. "It is not ok to have fraudulent registration . . . The system has been swamped, and this is not a trivial matter. It is not ok," Danforth said. "The last cycle there were more than questions raised, there were 12 convictions," he added.

Danforth said the goal of the conference call was to call attention to this problem, and try to "do whatever we can to stop it." He said a fair, clean election is in the interest of both parties. But he also raised ACORN's connection with Barack Obama.

"There is a clear connection between ACORN and Senator Obama," Sen. Danforth said. "He's been endorsed by the ACORN PAC . . . He's taught classes for ACORN. It's a strong connection."