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FBI probing ACORN registrations

WASHINGTON - The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter- registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election.

WASHINGTON - The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter- registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election.

A senior law-enforcement official confirmed the investigation. A second senior law-enforcement official said the FBI was looking at results of inquiries in several states, including a raid on ACORN's office in Las Vegas, for any evidence of a coordinated national effort.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Justice Department regulations forbid discussing ongoing investigations, particularly so close to an election.

Two spokesmen for the group, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, said yesterday that the FBI had not contacted the group.

"ACORN has not been notified that we are the target of an investigation by any authorities - nor should we be," spokesman Kevin Whelan said in a statement. "ACORN members have done a good and patriotic thing by helping bring more than a million of their fellow citizens into our democratic process."

Republican accusations about the group were raised during Wednesday's presidential debate.

ACORN says it has registered 1.3 million young people, minorities, and poor and working-class voters. More than 13,000 ACORN workers in 21 states recruited low-income voters, who tend to be Democrats.

Some ACORN employees have been accused of submitting false voter-registration forms. Those forms have become the focus of fraud investigations in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Missouri, Nevada, and several other states.

ACORN has said that the "vast majority" of its workers are conscientious but that some might have turned in duplicate applications or provided fake information to pad their pay. Workers caught submitting false information have been fired, it says.

ACORN says laws in a number of states require that it submit all registration cards it collects, even dubious ones, so its workers segregate applications with missing, suspicious or false information and flag them so that state election officials can quickly check them further.

Brian Kettenring, an ACORN spokesman, said its employees flagged questionable registration forms for election officials in 11 states, none of which is investigating the group.

House Republicans have been pushing for the Justice Department to investigate ACORN, calling on Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey to make sure ballots by ineligible or fraudulent voters are not counted on Nov. 4.

The issue also became campaign-trail fodder for Sen. John McCain, who demanded Wednesday night to know the full extent of Sen. Barack Obama's ties with ACORN. McCain said the group could be on the verge of "destroying the fabric of democracy."

Obama denied any significant ties to ACORN and mocked McCain for bringing it up. The Democrat and two other lawyers represented ACORN in 1995 in a lawsuit, alongside the Justice Department, against the State of Illinois to make voter registration easier. Obama's campaign also hired a firm with ties to the group for a get-out-the-vote effort during this year's primary.

Earlier this week, Obama said ACORN was not advising his campaign on voter registration and said the group's registration problems should not be used by the Republicans as an excuse to keep voters from turning out.