The six-month election recount that turned former “Saturday Night Live” comedian Al Franken into a U.S. senator may have been decided by convicted felons who voted illegally in Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

That’s the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341 convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman.

The final recount vote in the race, determined six months after Election Day, showed Franken beat Coleman by 312 votes — fewer votes than the number of felons whose illegal ballots were counted, according to Minnesota Majority’s newly released study, which matched publicly available conviction lists with voting records.

Furthermore, the report charges that efforts to get state and federal authorities to act on its findings have been “stonewalled.”

“We aren’t trying to change the result of the last election. That legally can’t be done,” said Dan McGrath, Minnesota Majority’s executive director. “We are just trying to make sure the integrity of the next election isn’t compromised.”

No surprises there, in fact I’m reminded of another election in 2008. Remember this?

CLEVELAND – A man at the center of a voter-registration scandal told The Post yesterday he was given cash and cigarettes by aggressive ACORN activists in exchange for registering an astonishing 72 times, in apparent violation of Ohio laws.

“Sometimes, they come up and bribe me with a cigarette, or they’ll give me a dollar to sign up,” said Freddie Johnson, 19, who filled out 72 separate voter-registration cards over an 18-month period at the behest of the left-leaning Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

“The ACORN people are everywhere, looking to sign people up. I tell them I am already registered. The girl said, ‘You are?’ I say, ‘Yup,’ and then they say, ‘Can you just sign up again?’ ” he said.

ACORN is now reacting by claiming that the documents were stolen. From their trash.

“A tempest in a trash can is brewing in San Diego County, where ACORN is trying to recover tens of thousands of documents taken from its garbage by a Republican activist.”

“It’s the latest skirmish in a war between ACORN, which stands for Community Organizations for Reform Now, and conservative critics who accuse it of corruption.”

“Derrick Roach, a private investigator who unsuccessfully ran for a state Assembly seat last year, said he took more than 20,000 documents from a caged trash area behind ACORN’s office in National City on Oct. 9.”

“Some of the documents later posted on a Web site and displayed at a news conference Monday appeared to show driver’s license and Social Security numbers of ACORN members or job applicants.”

“There also were immigration records, credit reports, tax returns, credit card statements and bank account numbers, Roach said Tuesday.”

“ACORN California Head Organizer Amy Schur said the confidential papers were carelessly included in the trash, and there was no intent to dump rather than shred them.”

“We want to get our property back so that we can properly secure it,” she said.”

Perhaps you should have thought of that before, Amy. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

“Shockingly, we now learn that the ACORN office in National City (San Diego County) engaged in a massive document dump on the evening of October 9th, containing thousands upon thousands of sensitive documents, just days prior to the Attorney General’s visit.”

“BigGovernment.com has learned that not only did this document dump occur, but the documents in question were irresponsibly and brazenly dumped in a public dumpster, without considering laws and regulations as to how sensitive information should be treated.”

‘I am a local licensed private investigator. I took it upon myself to keep an eye on what the local ACORN office was up to, in light of the release of the undercover videos. I retrieved these documents from the public dumpster.”

“ACORN’s political agenda is also exposed, with thousands upon thousands of documents revealing the depth of the political machine that is ACORN, and its disturbing ties to not only public employee labor unions but some of the most radical leftist organizations.”

“The laws governing how sensitive, personal information such as social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, immigration records, tax returns, etc. must be treated are very stringent, and thus it seems as if ACORN may have committed serious violations in that department alone, with thousands upon thousands of potential plaintiffs.”

Visit BigGovernment.com to see photos, video and scanned documents.

In related news, an ACORN employee in Nevada who was found guilty of participating in voter fraud last year was sentenced today. The penalty? Three years of probation.

“LAS VEGAS — A former Las Vegas supervisor for the political advocacy group ACORN was sentenced Monday to up to three years’ probation for his role in a plan to pay canvassers to register Nevada voters during last year’s presidential campaign.”

“I just want to say I take responsibility for what I did,” Christopher Edwards told a judge who responded that he was “not pleased to say the least” by allegations that Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now paid bonuses to canvassers who collected 21 or more voter registration cards in August and September 2008.”

“I’m sorry. I truly am,” Edwards said, “and it will never happen again.”

We know it won’t happen again, Mr. Edwards. We’re watching you scumbags now.

From the department of laughable via Politico:

“The Obama administration on Tuesday will announce “a sustained, multilevel attack on financial fraud,” including mortgage rip-offs, a senior administration official said.”

“The crackdown will range “from executives who illegally profited on Wall Street, to the bad actors still targeting middle class families with mortgage fraud schemes,” the official said.”

“The probe is to be announced at noon Tuesday at the Justice Department by Attorney General Eric Holder, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Division Director Rob Khuzami.”

So they’re going after the frauds… Good for them.

Will they be investigating Barney Frank & his buddies at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for their involvement in the US mortgage meltdown?

Will they be “cracking down” on the financial fraud of uber-corrupticrat Charlie Rangel?

How about the fraud of Chris Dodd and his shady Countrywide mortgage deals?

Is ACORN voter fraud on the target list?

Perhaps Obama’s campaign finance fraud?

Everything you need to know about the hypocrisy of this supposed “crackdown” is summed up in the fact that Tim Geithner, the tax fraud who’s running the Treasury Department, is part of the team announcing the attack on “fraud.”

What a farce.

“Thirty-eight forged or fraudulent ballots have been thrown out, according to records at the Rensselaer County Board of Elections in Troy, N.Y. Enough votes, an election official admits, to likely have tipped the November election to the Democrats.”

And who else is involved in this garbage? One guess.

ACORN! Who else?

“Critics also accuse the Working Families Party of having a long association with the troubled activist group, ACORN. Bertha Lewis, ACORN’s CEO, is one of the party’s co-founders.”

Read the whole thing.

Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman has called for Justice Monitors to prevent vote fraud.

Jammie Wearing Fool has a great breakdown and explanation of the situation.

Here’s the video to accompany the FOX News report above:

This video is from Rep. Michele Bachmann’s YouTube channel. Lou Dobbs holds his own, Michele Bachmann is fine. Barney Frank is waaaaaayyyyyy defensive. He froths at the mouth as he chants BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT. BUSH’S FAULT.

When does this tired narrative end?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHQ3cN47Mkc

Can you imagine the inevitable awesomeness of Glenn’s 2012 presidential election coverage?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-53obYAjtgg

Perhaps the crying woman wearing an ACORN shirt? Or maybe the man comforting her also wearing an ACORN shirt? Or perhaps the ACORN sign resting next to him?

This photo is from a New York Times story titled “Effort Takes Shape to Support Families Facing Forclosure.”

Now we don’t wish misfortune on our fellow Americans. It’s sad that people are losing their homes. We do however, take issue with the New York Times using this issue to carry water for ACORN.

You know, ACORN, the fraudulent voter registration organization now being investigated in several states.

The same ACORN which is currently pushing for the Fairness Doctrine.

The same ACORN that’s largely to blame for the sub-prime mortgage meltdown.

The New York Times sees things differently and is giving a voice to this organization:

“You want to haul us out to jail? Fine. Let the world see how government has been ineffective,” Bertha Lewis, Acorn’s chief organizer, said in an interview. “Politicians have helped banks, but they haven’t helped families in the way that it’s needed, and these families are now saying, enough is enough.”

You’re right Bertha. Enough is enough. Most Americans feel the exact same way though the focus of our exasperation is different. To get a sense of what I mean, you need only look in a mirror.

Of course, ACORN won’t have the New York Times to back them up for long. Considering that the cost of a share of stock in the New York Times now costs less than their Sunday edition.

“We cannot allow the men and women who defend our country to be denied the ability to exercise this basic democratic right,” said Doug Chapin, Director of Make Voting Work. “While individual states have adopted a wide range of improvements, the lack of consistency across their absentee voting processes presents one of the greatest challenges to military and overseas citizens attempting to navigate the system.”

Great.

So while our military is overseas risking their lives to guarantee America’s safety, they’re getting screwed out of their vote. All while here at home, ACORN was registering homeless people and committing vote fraud to guarantee Obama’s election.

That’s fair.

Especially considering that we know the troops overwhelmingly backed John McCain.