Group under watch of FBI

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election.

A senior law enforcement official confirmed the investigation to The Associated Press. A second senior law enforcement official says the FBI was looking at results of inquiries in several states, including a raid on ACORN's office in Las Vegas, for any evidence of a coordinated national effort.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Justice Department regulations forbid discussing ongoing investigations particularly so close to an election.

Two spokesmen for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, on Thursday said the FBI has not contacted the group.

"ACORN has not been notified that we are the target of an investigation by any authorities -- nor should we be," spokesman Kevin Whelan said in a statement. "ACORN members have done a good and patriotic thing by helping bring more than a million of their fellow citizens into our democratic process."

The investigation of ACORN's activities in Nevada was ongoing, a spokesman for the Nevada secretary of state said. The probe was being handled by an election fraud task force made up of investigators from the secretary of state's office, the attorney general's office and the FBI.

Republican accusations about the group were raised during Wednesday's presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican candidate John McCain.

ACORN says it has registered 1.3 million young people, minorities and poor and working-class voters. More than 13,000 ACORN workers in 21 states recruited low-income voters, who tend to be Democrats.

But some ACORN employees have been accused of submitting false voter registration forms -- including some signed "Mickey Mouse" or other fictitious characters.

Those voter registration cards have become the focus of fraud investigations in Nevada, Connecticut, Missouri and at least a half-dozen other states. Election officials in Ohio and North Carolina also recently questioned the group's voter forms.

ACORN has said the "vast majority" of its workers are conscientious, but some might have turned in duplicate applications or provided fake information to pad their pay. Workers caught submitting false information have been fired, ACORN officials say.

ACORN says laws in a number of states require it to submit all registration cards it collects even dubious ones, so its workers segregate applications with missing, suspicious or false information and flag them so state election officials can quickly check them further.

Brian Kettenring, an ACORN spokesman, said its employees flagged questionable registration forms for election officials in 11 states, none of which is investigating the group. He also said he did not believe a "Mickey Mouse" voter registration card in Orlando, Fla., was submitted by an ACORN worker.

House Republicans have been pushing for the Justice Department to investigate ACORN, calling on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to make sure ballots by ineligible or fraudulent voters are not counted on Nov. 4.

The issue also became campaign trail fodder for McCain, who on Wednesday night demanded to know the full extent of Obama's ties with ACORN. McCain said the group could be on the verge of "destroying the fabric of democracy."

Obama denied any significant ties to ACORN and mocked McCain for bringing it up.

The Democrat and two other lawyers represented ACORN in 1995 in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois to make voter registration easier, and hired a firm with ties to the group for a massive get-out-the-vote effort during this year's primary.

The Review-Journal contributed to this report.