ACORN Tries to Register Mickey Mouse in Florida

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) attempted to register Disney cartoon character Mickey Mouse to vote in Florida this summer.

This year, ACORN signed up 1.3-million voters nationwide and about 152,000 in Florida, mostly in Orange, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. ACORN estimates it flagged 2 percent of its Florida registrations as problematic because they were incomplete, duplicates or just plain bogus.

That’s enough to give headaches to election officials and to provide ammunition to Republican activists.

Brevard County elections officials have turned over 23 suspect registrations from ACORN to prosecutors. The state Division of Elections has received two ACORN-related complaints, in Orange and Broward counties.

ACORN wasn’t active in the Tampa Bay area. Last week, however, Pinellas County elections officials gave local prosecutors 35 questionable registrations from another group, Work for Progress.

The GOP accuses ACORN of registration fraud all over the country. In Las Vegas, authorities said the group’s petitions included the names of the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.

“This is part of a widespread and systemic effort … to undermine the election process,” says Republican National Committee chief counsel Sean Cairncross, who describes ACORN as a “quasicriminal organization.”

And, how much did the Barack Obama campaign contribute to ACORN this year?

Over 1 $ million, you don’t say?

Now, the state of North Carolina is investigating suspicious voter registration forms submitted by ACORN. Also, in Ohio, Nevada and Michigan – other battleground states. Here is a case in Indiana.

The Wall Street Journal this morning has a piece about the Obama-ACORN relationship.

The Bush Justice Department and FBI need to treat these fraudulent activities of ACORN as serious matters and not random local irregularities of voter fraud.

The integrity of our election laws demand no less.