August 14, 2008 (Issue 377)

ACORN UPDATE:  On July 25, 2008, the Bureau of Elections met with representatives of Michigan ACORN to discuss their organization's voter registration program and various issues raised by Michigan's county and local election officials.  Problem voter registration applications submitted by Michigan ACORN volunteers were reviewed and discussed during the meeting. 

Michigan ACORN Political Field Director Keith Cliette advised that ACORN's national policy stipulated that all voter registration forms collected by their organization be forwarded to local election officials regardless of their content, even if they appear to be fraudulent.  In some cases they claim to have alerted clerks of possible fraudulent applications. We have requested that Michigan ACORN no longer forward fraudulent voter registration forms.  In addition, Michigan ACORN representatives reported that they have secured the funding needed for bi-weekly mailings of voter registrations collected by their regional field offices.

Michigan ACORN policy requires that all voter registration forms collected by its agents contain the initials of the volunteer who handled the voter registration transaction.  If you do not see initials on the front of the form, check the back. If you receive falsified forms, we encourage you to forward copies of the forms to Michigan ACORN for review ? please include the initials of the volunteer who handled the transaction along with the copy.  You may forward the copies to the following contact:

Keith Cliette

Political Field Director

600 W. Lafayette Blvd. Suite L-133

Detroit, MI 48226

Telephone:  313-963-1840 ext. 227

Email:  polnat41@acorn.org

Finally, we ask that election officials remain in contact with the Bureau of Elections regarding any issues they encounter regarding voter registrations submitted by third party voter registration organizations including the timely delivery of the forms.