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ACORN-ucopia of voter ‘cheats’ busted

MIAMI — Armed with a tip from the activist group ACORN about its own workers, authorities yesterday began arresting 11 people suspected of falsifying hundreds of voter applications during a registration drive last year.

ACORN — the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — first detected problems in Miami-Dade County in June 2008, the group told prosecutors.

Investigators eventually determined that 11 canvassers, who were paid between $8 and $10 an hour, were turning in fake registration cards, mostly from the Homestead area.

The 11 workers each face multiple counts of two felony charges: false swearing in connection with voting and submission of false voter registration information. Each count is punishable by up to five years in prison.

The suspects collectively turned in about 1,400 registration cards, of which 888 were later found to be faked.

Some contained the names of celebrities, such as Paul Newman, while in other cases, the same real voter’s name was used on multiple applications. There was no evidence anyone voted who should not have.