Current congressional investigations into the Bush administration's 2006 firing of nine U.S. attorneys have revealed that one motivation behind the firings may have been the attorneys' refusal to pursue allegations of voter fraud as aggressively as the administration would have liked. Unfortunately, the attorneys were not the only casualty of the hunt for voter fraud. ACORN — an organization dedicated to empowering low-income communities across the country — also became a victim in what appears to be a politically motivated assault on its voter registration efforts. One of ACORN's central strategies in working for social justice for low-income people and families is increasing civic participation among these citizens. According to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau, the voting rate in the 2002 elections among citizens living in families with annual incomes of $50,000 or more was 57 percent, compared with 25 percent for citizens living in families with incomes under $10,000. To address this imbalance, in 2004, ACORN registered more than 1.1 million voters across the country. During the 2006 election cycle, ACORN reported that it ran the largest voter registration drive in the country, registering over 540,000 citizens. ACORN workers in fifteen states contacted 1.5 million households to encourage citizens to vote. One of the places ACORN conducted voter registration and get-out-the vote campaigns in 2006 was the Kansas City, MO, metro area, where the electoral stakes were high. A tight race for Senate was heating up between Republican incumbent Jim Talent and Democrat Claire McCaskill, with the outcome potentially deciding the balance of power in the Senate. According to a May 2007 press release, ACORN notified law enforcement authorities after its quality control program discovered that four of their temporary workers had submitted registration cards with falsified information. The faulty registrations were invalidated by state authorities prior to Election Day, so there was no potential impact on the election results. However, just five days before the election, the interim U.S. Attorney for western Missouri — Bradley J. Schlozman — filed indictments against four employees of ACORN, accusing them of voter fraud. Schlozman further asserted that "this national investigation is very much ongoing." He pressed charges despite Justice Department regulations which discourage "overt" pre-election action established to protect against the appearance or the effect of electoral intervention. In reaction to the indictments, conservative leaders and some media asserted ACORN purposefully committed voter fraud. An example of the attacks that followed included the words of Paul Sloca, who was then serving as the communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. Sloca criticized ACORN, saying, "It is very disturbing that members of this left leaning group have been indicted for engaging in serious voter fraud designed to cause chaos and controversy at the polls in order to help Democrats try to steal next week's elections." Sloca and many commentators failed to mention the fact that ACORN had aided the investigation and that ACORN itself was the primary victim of fraud, not voters. As it turns out, Schlozman only came to the interim U.S. Attorney position after his predecessor — Todd Graves — was asked to step down, possibly for the same reasons the other nine U.S. attorneys were dismissed. According to the Boston Globe, Graves was asked to leave in March 2006 after refusing to pursue voter fraud prosecutions as aggressively as the Bush administration wanted. Graves was then replaced by Schlozman, despite the fact that Schlozman had no prosecutorial experience. Prior to stepping down, National Public Radio reported that Graves acknowledged he and Schlozman had disagreements about a lawsuit Schlozman wanted to pursue involving allegations of falsified voter registrations. The court cases against the four former ACORN employees are mostly resolved, with ACORN's cooperation. Charges against one defendant were dropped. After pleading guilty in February to filing false registration forms, a second defendant recently received probation. Another of the four also pleaded guilty to similar charges and is awaiting sentencing. The final person who was indicted is scheduled to go on trial in July. In testament to their dedication to social justice, ACORN is continuing to press ahead with its voter engagement activities, actively preparing for the 2008 elections, despite the unwarranted criticism its organization received for its registration activities in the fall of 2006.