The controversial group, ACORN, is being singled out in yet another voter registration scandal. And, as the headline reads, an Ohio man says that he was bribed to register an astonishing 72 times.
The
New York Post is reporting that over the last eighteen months, 19-year-old Freddie Johnson has filled out 72 voter registration cards after being bribed by aggressive activists from the left-leaning group called the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
A spokesman for ACORN says that they do not "
tolerate" or allow their workers to pay people to sign the voter-registration cards.
ACORN's political wing has endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 federal election. A spokesman for the Obama campaign said that ACORN is not involved in their "
get-out-the-vote" drive.
Johnson, who works as a clerk at a cell phone kiosk in Cleveland, claims that he was given cigarettes or cash to go and fill out the registration forms.
Sometimes, they come up and bribe me with a cigarette, or they'll give me a dollar to sign up. The ACORN people are everywhere, looking to sign people up. I tell them I am already registered. The girl said, 'You are?' I say, 'Yup,' and then they say, 'Can you just sign up again?'.
ACORN is currently under investigation in Ohio and in at least eight other states for varying types of voter registration fraud, including for allegedly registering a 7-year-old In Ohio, bribing people with gifts (i.e., cigarettes) can get you up to 18 months in jail and by offering to pay "compensation on a fee-per-registration" can get you 12 months.
And Mr. Johnson? When asked if he was going to exercise his constitutional right to vote: "
Yeah, I've registered enough - I might as well vote."
