Pittsburgh Area Attorney Testifies Against ACORN

Following a hearing today by a U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee, Congressman John Conyers urged the full Judiciary Committee to investigate alleged voter fraud by the activist group ACORN. Mt. Lebanon attorney Heather Heidelbaugh testified before the subcommittee today as vice president of the Republican National Lawyers Association. Heidelbaugh called on the subcommittee to investigate and audit ACORN's Project Vote, which has a $28 million budget itself, to determine whether it should be allowed to maintain its tax exempt status because of apparent misappropriation of charitable contributions.
Heidelbaugh says ACORN does provide information to citizens about issues "that we care about" but "there is a dark side to ACORN." Heidelbaugh told the panel that 60% of the voter registration cards that are submitted by ACORN are fraudulent and the organization has done nothing systematically to hire better workers or provide better training. Heidelbaugh says the illegitimate registration cards are "not an amateurish attempt to register voters" but rather a "nationwide scheme to fraudulently register voters." Heidelbaugh called on the subcommittee to have ACORN and its affiliated entities audited and all government funds to the organization halted until taxpayer dollars to ACORN are properly accounted for.