Public Eye Feature

Growing Strong Communities

Despite efforts to suppress its activities, ACORN pushes ahead on reforms
By Kevin Osborne

ACORN reformers (L-R top row) James Moreland, Amy Teitelman, Lillie Harris and Debra Hentnik and (bottom row) Vonnie Tawwab and Tonya Hicks. Photo By Cameron Knight

Whenever Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters holds a press conference, observers know there’s going to be plenty of histrionics involved. Well aware that TV news cameras linger on high emotion, Deters is always “outraged” or “shocked” about something.

In October, his target wasn’t an alleged murderer or child molester; it was ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Formed in 1970, the group focuses on issues designed to empower low- and moderate-income families such as neighborhood safety, financial counseling, healthcare, affordable housing and voter registration.

It was the latter issue that drew Deters’ attention. A Republican, he also served as Southwest Ohio campaign chairman for then-presidential candidate John McCain.

Supposedly based on confidential tips, Deters launched an investigation into possible voter registration fraud arising from county residents who registered to vote and cast a ballot at the same time during the period that was legally allowed, Sept. 30-Oct. 6.

Republicans had challenged Ohio’s so-called “early voting window,” but courts upheld its legality.

Enter Deters. Using the authority of his elected office, the prosecutor cited unspecified “numerous credible complaints of voter irregularity” to justify the probe.

Meanwhile, local election officials responsible for monitoring potential fraud say they didn’t file any complaint with his office.

Deters told some reporters confidentially that he heard ACORN or other groups were luring poor people to register by offering them free cigarettes and alcohol. He also was concerned that some people registered by ACORN put obviously fictitious names like “Mickey Mouse” on the forms. But that happens in every petition or registration drive, and ACORN pulls those and flags them for the Board of Elections to review, says Amy Teitelman, Ohio ACORN’s director.

“It’s not our jobs to determine who gets on the rolls,” Teitelman says. “It’s the Board of Elections’.”

“We fully cooperated with them,” adds James Moreland, chair of Cincinnati ACORN. “It’s nothing we condone.”

Suddenly, the little-known ACORN became the whipping boy for Deters and radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, who were irritated that Democrat Barack Obama was leading in polls.

ACORN sharply denied the claims. The attacks clearly were politically motivated, Teitelman says.

“It was all a bunch of unscrupulous moves by a lot of partisan forces in this election, who didn’t want to see low- and moderate-income people become enfranchised,” she says. “They’re actually the majority in the United States, and that is threatening to some people.”

ACORN’s goal was to register 54,000 new voters in Greater Cincinnati last year. It actually registered 55,565 and, based on experience, assumes about 70 percent (about 39,000) made it onto voter rolls.

Overall, ACORN estimates it added more than 173,000 new voters to Ohio’s rolls.

As part of his October investigation, Deters subpoenaed the registrations of about 40 percent of the 671 people who voted during the early voting window. Also, he wanted their ballots quarantined and not counted until 10 days after the election, pending a thorough review. Deters announced the actions in a high-profile press conference that critics said was aimed at suppressing voter turnout by making people fearful their private records would be subpoenaed.

ACORN’s Cincinnati chapter has about 15,000 members, including 2,500 active volunteers.

“ACORN’s on the ground every day, and I think that’s intimidating to them,” Moreland said.

Deters’ handling of the ACORN case compares to his starkly different actions in 2007 involving allegations of fraud against an ultra-conservative group.

Some pro-gay rights groups had alerted Deters to irregularities by an organization affiliated with Citizens for Community Values that had attempted an unsuccessful petition drive a year earlier to overturn Cincinnati’s human rights ordinance. Addresses on petitions were marked out and replaced with new ones on 1,016 of the signatures the group collected.

The addresses changed were for signers who lived outside Cincinnati city limits; they were replaced with addresses for people who live within the city and have the same or similar names. That type of effort could only come from someone comparing the names with the rolls of registered voters, critics said.

In a letter to the Board of Elections, Deters acknowledged that altering the addresses probably was illegal and that similar action could result in criminal prosecution in future cases. But he chose not to indict any member of the group, stating its members believed the action was permitted based on advice from their unnamed attorney.

Last year’s ACORN probe triggered public outrage, prompting Deters to recuse himself and appoint a special
prosecutor just two days after the press conference.

Ultimately, the special prosecutor determined there were only two people who improperly cast ballots, and neither was connected to ACORN. One of those two was a Connecticut man visiting Cincinnati who was troubled by his conscience and called local elections officials to ask that his ballot be pulled.

“There were only two fraudulent votes, neither of which had anything to do with ACORN,” Teitelman says. “This further underscores that ‘voter fraud’ is a myth. There’s a difference between voter registration fraud and voter fraud. We catch the former and turn them in.”

In fact, when pressed in late October, a top official with the McCain-Palin “Honest and Open Election Committee” couldn’t cite a single instance in which problems with fake voter registrations resulted in phony votes being cast. The statement, of course, wasn’t reported by Limbaugh and his ilk.

Currently, ACORN is focusing on efforts to have the National Voter Registration Act fully implemented in Ohio and other states. Although a part requiring voter registration forms to be offered to people getting driver’s licenses has been implemented, another part hasn’t been. That one requires forms to be offered to people signing up for services through the Department of Jobs and Family Services.

Another ACORN project involves pushing for a statewide moratorium on home foreclosures while owners renegotiate their mortgages or get other help.

“There’s always more work to be done,” Teitelman says. ©