http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... dt.01.html

Also, a left-wing activist group linked to Senator Obama. Are they trying to steal the election outright? We'll have that special report on widening investigations into an outfit called ACORN.

And rising concerns that illegal aliens may be allowed to vote and influence the outcome of this election.

Stay with us, we're coming right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DOBBS: New evidence tonight that the so-called community left- wing activist group ACORN is involved in widespread voter registration fraud. And point of fact, ACORN is a left-wing special interest group that's been under investigation for, literally, years in various parts of the country for voter fraud and embezzlement.

Tonight, the Lake County, Indiana Board of Election says ACORN submitted literally thousands of fraudulent voter registrations cards over the past few days alone.

Drew Griffin has been investigating ACORN. He's joining us now from Chicago bureau with the very latest for us -- Drew?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT: Lou, let me set this up a little bit. Lake County is a very Democratic county in the Republican state of Indiana. Barack Obama wants to turn Indiana this election. And if it turns his way it will be largely because of the voters in Lake County who turn out again heavily Democratic.

ACORN who supports Barack Obama in this presidential campaign went out and tried to register as many new voters in Lake County as they possibly could. The deadline was October 6th. They came in with 5,000 new applications. And when the registrations office began going through them, they found a pattern -- every single one of them was fraudulent.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN (on camera): A lot of them?

RUTHANN HOAGLAND (R), LAKE COUNTY ELECTIONS BOARD: 50 percent. We had close to 5,000 total from ACORN, and so far, we have identified about 2100.

GRIFFIN: So roughly half of them...

HOAGLAND: Roughly half.
GRIFFIN: ... are bad.
HOAGLAND: Correct.
GRIFFIN: Registered to a dead person, registered to a person who lives at a fast food shop?
HOAGLAND: Yes.
GRIFFIN: Shop?
HOAGLAND: Yes.
GRIFFIN: Or just all of them, amazingly, in the same hand?
HOAGLAND: Yes. Yes. All the signatures look exactly the same. Everything on the card filled out looks just the same.
GRIFFIN: Ruthann, fraud?
HOAGLAND: We have no idea what the motive behind it is. It's just overwhelming to us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Lou, I took a look at these registration forms and, indeed, they're all in the same hand. You can tell they're all written by the same person. They showed us the death certificates of some of these people who are registered there.

The workers have been diligently trying to go through all these new ones. But finally, they had to just put them aside. 2,100 of these applications are fraudulent. The other 2900 have been placed to the side. They haven't even looked at them yet.

They want to take care of the actual good applications of real new voters who really want to vote in this election. But they're scared. They're scared they don't know what's out there and who or what is going to show up at the polls when voting actually begins in the ballot boxes.

DOBBS: Drew, the -- woman with whom you were speaking, a terrific public servant, I -- we have got wonderful people like her all over the country. She seemed very sweet, she would not commit to the fact that somebody writing in the same handwriting for thousands of times to register dead people would be committing fraud.

But listen, you've been looking into this story for days and days now. We're seeing it from Vegas to Ohio to Pennsylvania to Indiana, all over the country, and these investigations are opening up. How can there be any doubt about what's at work here?

GRIFFIN: You know, each individual county, Lou -- and that's what's happening there. And let me tell you, Lake County, they are so afraid of anybody calling them partisan, for every worker, every job in that elections office, one person is a Republican, one is a Democrat.

Both Republicans and Democrats are coming to me and saying, look, this is fraud. This is registration fraud. But each county has to look at it and usually what happens is, after the fact, after the election, the boards look at it, they file criminal charges, people are charged with these.

But it takes years to get these charged filed and for any kind of actual convictions to come through.

DOBBS: Where is...

GRIFFIN: And that's too late.

DOBBS: Where is the Justice Department? And why is this being permitted to go on?

GRIFFIN: I think that's a very good question but I will ask the Justice Department tomorrow morning.

But, again, if the jurisdiction of the local county that has to go through the legal process, you know, so that's what this board will recommend, a decision to the county attorney.

DOBBS: All right. Drew, thank you very much, as always, outstanding reporting.

Well, new evidence tonight that the Obama campaign is substantially connected to ACORN, despite disavows from both ACORN and the Obama campaign. And new questions tonight as well about just how much money ACORN receives from the federal government.

As Bill Tucker reports some members of Congress are now calling for all federal funding of any part of ACORN to be halted.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): House Republican leader John Boehner wants all federal funding to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, to end it now. He's joining a course of Republican members who are furious over repeated charges of voter registration fraud against ACORN.

Last month, 39 members of the House sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking the attorney general to investigate ACORN.

REP. TOM FEENEY (R), FLORIDA: We shouldn't be funding any political activity with taxpayer dollars. Jefferson said it was the essence of tyranny to force a man to contribute to a cause he doesn't believe in.

TUCKER: But when it comes to cutting off funding, there's a problem. Nobody has a handle on how much money ACORN receives from federal resources.

REP. STEVE GARRETT (R), NEW JERSEY: I would absolutely say, no, we do not have a handle on that. And the reason is -- as I said a moment ago, ACORN is an umbrella organization of 75 different organization, as I understand it, and so they have, if you want to use the word "tentacles," out in all of these. And in any piece of legislation, you will probably not see the word ACORN in it.

TUCKER: Representative Garrett says that within the federal rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, there's a $500 million set aside for community organizations like the groups that make up ACORN.

Financial Services Committee chairman, Barney Franks, says no money goes to ACORN. And a spokesman for ACORN says it receives no money from federal sources, calling itself, a, quote, "nonprofit, nonpartisan social justice organization," which refuses to accept federal moneys, saying funding comes from donations and membership fees.

Opponents call that laughable, claiming that at least 40 percent of ACORN's funding is supplied by federal sources.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCKER: And ACORN has been paid $800,000 by the Obama campaign to register voters. And there's another connection between ACORN and the Democratic presidential candidate Obama. Obama, along with the Department of Justice, represented the group in a lawsuit to force the state of Illinois to comply with voter registration law, Lou.

DOBBS: So, to -- again, to be clear, there is no question that the Obama campaign is paying ACORN...

TUCKER: That's correct. DOBBS: ... for voter registration? And that now that ACORN is being with fraudulent registration, voter fraud, in effect, across a number of states all across the country?

TUCKER: That is absolutely correct.

DOBBS: And there is no federal investigation at this point? This is absolutely obscene and outrageous.

Bill, thank you very much. Bill Tucker.

Well, ACORN is under investigation for embezzlement and voter fraud among other things in at least eight states. Authorities are investigating ACORN's voter registration drives. And ACORN employees, some of them have been convicted of voter fraud.

Former Ohio secretary of state Ken Blackwell is calling for closer scrutiny of Senator Obama's connections to ACORN.

The Obama campaign Web site, by the way, fight the smears responded today by attacking Blackwell, saying, quote, "Blackwell's attacks against ACORN and community organizers constitute a vile Republican pattern of mockery and viciousness against this noble profession.

Community organizers are the very individuals Republicans should be celebrating for helping people help themselves rather than depending on the government."

That gets a little complicated since ACORN is depending on, obviously, the government and political organizations. And after disavowing a relationship with ACORN, despite all of those investigations across eight states right now into ACORN and voter fraud, the Obama campaign, obviously, supporting ACORN.

That brings us to the subject of our poll tonight. Are you concerned that radical left-wing activist groups are trying to manipulate the outcome of this presidential election? Yes or no. Cast your vote at Loudobbs.com. We'll have the results for you here later.