Like the mythological hydra that grew two heads for every one cut off, the controversial ACORN group has been reborn under a swarm of new names and poses an "epidemic" voter-fraud threat that could alter the outcome of midterm elections, GOP leaders warn.
David Norcross, chairman of the Republican National Lawyers Association, tells Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview that the community-organizing group ACORN "absolutely" has re-emerged since it was disbanded in March following a rash of voter-fraud investigations.
"Some of the old ACORN groups are back at it again," Norcross tells Newsmax.TV. "They use quotas for registration. That encourages people to go out and sign up anybody, or nobody — just sign up addresses and things like that."
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Norcross says his group has received reports of voting irregularities "on multiple fronts."
"It's an epidemic," Norcross tells Newsmax. "It's laughable that the left calls voter fraud nonexistent. It's very much existent."
Two years ago, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and ACORN were "joined at the hip," Norcross contends. Even without a group named ACORN per se, attempts to manipulate the election will continue, he says.
"There's no question in my mind that the SEIU will continue those registration tactics, whether or not any semblance of ACORN is involved," he says.
"But there's also ample evidence that ACORN has been reborn with a number of new names," he says. "What you want to look for as key words are 'community organization,' [and] 'justice, ' [or] 'working families.' Those are all key words, and we believe those organizations are simply remade ACORN organizations."
Norcross says his organization, whose mission includes the promotion of fair and honest elections, has alerted its members around the country to be on the lookout for organizations bearing ACORN-related names.
Norcross tells Newsmax he has many other vote-integrity concerns in the upcoming midterm. Among them:
- The spike in voting by mail is a big concern because it offers very little ballot security. Even with a careful registration process, there's no way to check voters' ID for mail-in ballots. "Encouraging voting is one thing," he says. "But we ought not to be encouraging any voters who aren't supposed to be voters."
- He is very concerned about the integrity of Nevada's U.S. Senate election, pitting Republican challenger Sharron Angle against Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Republican National Lawyers Association has had a team on the ground in Nevada for two weeks to prepare accordingly. "We are going to be watching that one extremely carefully."
- Several states, including New York and Illinois, sent out military ballots several weeks late. "You can see how unsympathetic the Democrat establishment is on the question of voter fraud and military voting," he says.
- Electioneering in polling places, which is illegal, is relatively easy to detect, he says. Tougher to ferret out are voters who show up without identification and seek to cast a ballot under the name of someone else on the voter-registration rolls. Preventing that type of fraud can require a lawyer, he says.
- He acknowledges that Republicans were "outmaneuvered" in the 2008 Minnesota recount that sent Al Franken to the U.S. Senate over GOP incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. "We're alert to the problems in Minnesota," Norcross says. "We think that the secretary of state there [Mark Ritchie] is anything but a hardliner on keeping recount regulations straight. So we're there, and we'll be watching that one very, very carefully."
- Norcross sees reverse racism in the Justice Department's handling of voter intimidatinon by billy-club-wielding members of the New Black Panther Party. Dismissing that case, he said, was "absolutely outrageous." The Justice Department has denied reports that it is investigating allegations of voter intimidation by tea party organizations in Texas.
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