Crites Calls for RICO Investigation of Alleged Voter Fraud by ACORN

Release:

Columbus – The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now – better known as ACORN – should be investigated under the state or federal RICO statutes for alleged voter fraud according to Mike Crites, former U.S. Attorney and Republican candidate for Ohio Attorney General.

“I’ve spent 20 years as a prosecutor so it’s not too hard to spot a bad apple – or in this case, a bad ACORN,” Crites said. “While all parties are innocent until proven guilty, widespread allegations of voter registration fraud throughout Ohio and across the country present enough evidence to call for a full-blown investigation of the activist group ACORN.”

Because the Attorney General election is a special election, the winner will take office in November, once results are certified. Crites said that if elected, he will on his first day in office confer with county prosecutors in large Ohio cities and Ohio ’s federal prosecutors to begin gathering evidence of possible election fraud by ACORN and others.

Crites said if election fraud could be proven, there are a number of options for bringing RICO charges against ACORN, including:

Local county prosecutors bringing state RICO charges with logistical support from the Attorney General through the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation;

If local prosecutors decline to act directly, the Attorney General could use local authority to investigate and bring state RICO charges for election fraud, representing the first time the state Attorney General would use the RICO statute in this way; or

The U.S. Attorneys could seek federal RICO charges and the Ohio Attorney General would assist with that effort in a task force setting.

Crites pointed to current allegations in Franklin , Cuyahoga and Hamilton Counties that raise red flags about ACORN’s tactics and called on local prosecutors including Franklin County ’s Ron O’Brien to investigate potential voter fraud.

According to news reports, The Franklin County Prosecutor’s office said it received a complaint from a Colorado woman who claims her Franklin County relatives associated with ACORN were improperly registering and voting.

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections heard official testimony from a voter who said he signed 73 voter registration forms over a five-month period in exchange for cigarettes or cash from ACORN workers.

Cuyahoga County has also seen instances of multiple registration cards with the same name but different dates of birth or different addresses, and a case of multiple people registered at the same address – an address that turned out to be a restaurant.

ACORN actually indicated to the Cuyahoga County Board of Election that it cannot eliminate fraud from its operation. The elections board has officially asked the county prosecutor to investigate.

In Hamilton County , the Board of Elections is investigating an ACORN worker for fraudulently submitting multiple voter registrations for people who don’t exist.

ACORN’s suspicious activity can be traced back as far as 2004, when the group gained notoriety for submitting Ohio voter registration forms for Dick Tracy, Mary Poppins, and Jive Turkey Sr., among others. The group is also under fire for suspicious registration activity in Connecticut , Florida , Indiana , Missouri , Nevada , New Mexico , Pennsylvania , and Wisconsin .

“Just like disgraced former Attorney General Marc Dann, my opponent, Richard Cordray, has never been a prosecutor so all of these front-line investigative matters are rather new to him,” Crites concluded. “The only way Ohioans can get an experienced prosecutor in the attorney general’s office is to elect one – Mike Crites.”