Congressional report clears ACORN of voter fraud

WASHINGTON — The Congressional Research Service says in a new report that it couldn't find any instances in which people improperly registered to vote by the activist group known as ACORN showed up at the polls on Election Day.

The report also found no instances in the past five years of the group misusing federal funds. Both houses of Congress voted to cut off money to the group after the release of videotapes showing employees advising two conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan and Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts, both Democrats, commissioned the report in response to criticism of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

The group also is being investigated by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm.

Republicans have accused ACORN, which registers minorities and low-income residents who traditionally vote Democratic, of voter fraud.

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis has said that, while some phony registrations were discovered, the group was required by law to submit them to local election boards. Lewis has called allegations of voter fraud "an utter fabrication and a work of fiction."

A Brooklyn federal judge ruled Dec. 11 that the funding cutoff approved by Congress likely violated a constitutional ban on "bills of attainder," which are laws that single out individuals for punishment. U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon issued an injunction preventing the government from enforcing the measures.

An outside review of the group released earlier this month found that ACORN "left itself vulnerable to public embarrassment" by failing to follow "appropriate standards of governance and accountability." The review was undertaken at the group's request by Scott Harshbarger, a former Massachusetts attorney general and a former president of the advocacy group Common Cause.