1 VOTER, 72 REGISTRATIONS 'ACORN PAID
ME IN CASH & CIGS' By JEANE MacINTOSH Post Correspondent
WHO Do you think they will Vote for?
PAWNS IN 'FRAUD': Freddie Johnson, yesterday in Cleveland, and Lateala
Goins told of filling out voter registrations multiple times in the
ACORN scandal revealed by The Post yesterday.
CLEVELAND - A man at the center of a
voter-registration scandal told The Post yesterday he was given cash and
cigarettes by aggressive ACORN activists in exchange for registering an
astonishing 72 times, in apparent violation of Ohio laws.
"Sometimes, they come up and bribe me
with a cigarette, or they'll give me a dollar to sign up," said Freddie
Johnson, 19, who filled out 72 separate voter-registration cards over an
18-month period at the behest of the left-leaning Association of
Community Organizations for Reform Now.
"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?' " he said.
Johnson used the same information on
all of his registration cards, and officials say they usually catch and
toss out duplicate registrations. But the practice sparks fear that some
multiple registrants could provide different information and vote more
than once by absentee ballot.
ACORN is under investigation in Ohio
and at least eight other states - including Missouri, where the FBI said
it's planning to look into potential voter fraud - for over-the-top
efforts to get as many names as possible on the voter rolls regardless
of whether a person is registered or eligible.
It's even under investigation in
Bridgeport, Conn., for allegedly registering a 7-year-old girl to vote,
according to the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
Meanwhile, a federal judge yesterday
ordered Ohio's Secretary of State to verify the identity of newly
registered voters by matching them with other government documents. The
order was in response to a Republican lawsuit unrelated to the ACORN
probe in Cuyahoga County, in which at least three people, including
Johnson, have been subpoenaed.
Bribing citizens with gifts, property
or anything of value is a fourth-degree felony in Ohio, punishable by up
to 18 months in prison. And it's a fifth-degree felony - punishable by
12 months in jail - for a person to pay "compensation on a
fee-per-registration" system when signing up someone to vote.
Johnson, who works at a cellphone
kiosk in downtown Cleveland, said he was a sitting duck for the
signature hunters, but was always happy to help them out in exchange for
a smoke or a little scratch. He'd collected 10 to 20 cigarettes and
anywhere from $10 to $15, he said.
The Cleveland voting probe, first
reported by The Post yesterday, also focused on Lateala Goins, who said
she put her name on multiple voter registrations. She guessed ACORN
canvassers then put fake addresses on them. "You can tell them you're
registered as many times as you want - they do not care," she said.
ACORN spokesman Kris Harsh said the
group does not tolerate its workers paying people to sign the
voter-registration cards.
ACORN's political wing has endorsed
Barack Obama for president, but Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama
campaign in Ohio, said ACORN has no role in its get-out-the-vote drive.
During the primary season, however,
the Obama camp paid another group, Citizen Service Inc., $832,598 for
various political services, according to Federal Elections Commission
filings. That group and ACORN share the same board of directors.
In Wisconsin yesterday, John McCain
blasted ACORN.
"No one should be corrupting the most
precious right we have, that is the right to vote," he said.
It's a right Johnson will exercise.
"Yeah, I've registered enough - I might as well vote."
