Minn. ACORN defends voter registration program

The Hennepin County Attorney's office released new details on the investigation into a voter registration drive in Minnesota.

The office is checking whether the voter registration processing lapse at the Minnesota ACORN office falls within guidelines for criminal prosecution, according to the Star Tribune:

A malfunctioning scanner at ACORN's St. Paul offices in August created a backlog that caused a batch of cards to be submitted late to the Hennepin County Elections Board.

All of the registrations were processed in time to allow voters to participate in both the primary and general elections. None was discarded for fraud or ineligibility.

Despite the recent controversy over ACORN voter registration practices, the grass-roots community organization's policies appear to be in compliance with state law, Deputy Hennepin County Attorney Pat Diamond said this afternoon. If the county finds cause for prosecution, it likely would focus on individuals. Diamond declined to speculate what kinds of charges could be pursued, or what kind of penalty would be possible.

Organizations are given a 10-day filing period intended to prevent a last-minute backlog of registrations at county elections offices.

ACORN executive director Brandon Nesson estimated the batch as "less than 1,000," and the timing as "within a month."

ACORN officials sent out a press release Tuesday explaining the incident:

"We have been working proactively over the past year with Hennepin County to ensure that the registration cards we are collecting and submitting are accurate. The incident reported today regarding the late submission of one batch of these cards to Hennepin County was actually the result of our thorough quality control program that is in place to prevent voter registration fraud."

"The isolated incident, which occurred in August, resulted when our Quality Control staff submitted a batch of voter registration cards outside of the 10-day rule under Minnesota election policies. We then met with the County and were assured that all of the voters that were registered in the related batch would be fully able to vote both in the Statewide Primary and General Election."

"We expressed then and we reiterate now that ACORN is more than willing to cooperate with any investigation related to this issue."

"Minnesota voters should be confident that they have every right to vote in November."

If all of the registered residents will be able to vote, why is this a big deal? Maybe we are missing how this fits in with the national ACORN controversy stemming from the group submitting fake registration cards to up their numbers.