Woman charged with voter sign-up fraud

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- A former voter registration worker for two groups has been charged in St. Louis with federal voter registration fraud, U.S. prosecutors said.

Deidra Humphrey of East St. Louis, Ill., allegedly submitted forged voter registration cards, U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A grand jury handed up a two-count indictment Dec. 31.

Humphrey was a paid employee of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- ACORN -- and then the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition, or ProVote. Jeff Ordower, the regional director for ACORN, said that the group determined that some of the cards Humphrey was turning in had problems, did its own investigation and then gave the results to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

During the presidential campaign, Republican candidates tried to make ACORN an issue, charging that the group was involved in massive voter-fraud. While there have been a number of investigations and prosecutions, there has been no proof of anyone actually voting illegally, the report said.

Most investigators have found that ACORN, at worst, uses paid workers who have an incentive to submit faked registrations to increase payments.