Boehner Wants Federal Funding For ACORN Halted

October 10, 2008 1:32 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) is calling for federal funding for the nation's largest advocacy group for low-income people, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), to be stopped amid allegations of that fraud had been committed in the group's voter registration drives in several states.

In a statement released late Thursday, the Republican leader said, "Election cycle after election cycle, this organization has been at the forefront of breaking the law in order to promote their left-wing agenda. All the while, they have been the recipients of millions of dollars of federal funding through various federal programs and third-party groups."

"All federal funding to ACORN must be stopped. The ACORN slush fund must be disbanded. Sources of federal funding through the Department of Housing and Urban Development or any other agency must be stopped. Contracting for services between candidates for federal office and ACORN, as Senator Obama has done, must end," he added.

ACORN recently completed a massive voter registrtion drive nationwide along with another group, Project Vote. It is facing accusations of voter fraud in several states, including Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio.

Some voter registration forms submitted by the group in Missouri were found to be fraudulent on Thursday, according to a statement by Charlene Davis, Jackson County's GOP elections director, to the the St. Louis Post Dispatch. The discovery came days after ACORN's Las Vegas office was raided by state authorities investigating if it had submitted forms containing false information and attempted to register voters multiple times.

ACORN interim Chief Organizer Bertha Lewis has called the raid of its Las Vegas office "a stunt that serves no useful purpose other than to discredit our work registering Nevadans and distracting us from the important work ahead of getting every eligible voter to the polls."

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, son of House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), has condemned the group in a statement. "Fraudulent registration is an assault on our election system and should not be tolerated, period. There can be only one reason why an organization like ACORN would consistently submit fraudulent registrations and that is to cheat the system by allowing people to cast fraudulent ballot," he said.

According to pundits, the surge in interest among voters, and rise in voter registration, will benefit Democrats, particularly Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), who has been credited with the increased interest in this election especially among young voters.

The Illinois Democrat was involved with Project Vote's registration drive. He is quoted by FOX as saying, "Sandy Newman, who was running this national project called Project Vote, contacted me and said we need somebody to help organize voters... I started working as the director of Project Vote here in Chicago and our task was simple. It was to get disenfranchised communities, minority communities, low-income communities, to turn out to vote."