( CNN ) -- Community organization ACORN is fighting back after allegations that it is trying to register voters fraudulently and to swing the presidential election for Democrat Barack Obama . ACORN Executive Director Steve Kest announces the group 's lawsuits and television spot Wednesday . The group this week released a 30-second TV ad calling on Republican candidate John McCain to stop `` attempts at voter suppression across the country . '' It also said it was filing several lawsuits around the country to halt the alleged suppression . Republicans have `` challenged election officials , and they 've filed lawsuits in an effort to thwart these new voters -- our citizens -- from casting their votes on Tuesday . This effort must be stopped , '' Delaware ACORN board member Hugh Alleyne said during a news conference Wednesday . Watch ACORN , conservatives spar » . ACORN contends it tried to help authorities head off election fraud . `` In nearly every case that has been reported , it was ACORN that discovered the bad forms and called them to the attention of election authorities , putting the forms in a package that identified them in writing as suspicious , encouraging election officials to investigate , and offering to help with prosecutions , '' ACORN said in an October 9 news release . On Friday , a Pennsylvania judge rejected state Republican Party demands to obtain lists of voters registered by ACORN . The judge , Robert Simpson , said the Pennsylvania Republicans failed to convince him of the need for a preliminary injunction that would have required immediate action in the final days before the election . The state GOP accuses ACORN of widespread fraud in helping register some 140,000 voters in Pennsylvania . `` This kind of manufactured crisis is masking [ Republican ] efforts to keep voters from voting , '' ACORN spokeswoman Ali Kronley told CNN . The top lawyer representing the Pennsylvania Republicans said they were `` disappointed . '' But , Heather Heidelbaugh added , the wording of the court order indicates the judge thinks ACORN has problems . Simpson said he would favor `` expedited discovery '' should someone want to pursue `` evidence that in Pennsylvania practices of ACORN Outreach Workers can encourage duplicate voter registration . '' In Lake County , Indiana , nearly half of the 5,000 registrations ACORN submitted in early October were not good . Indiana 's Republican Secretary of State Todd Rokita has requested a criminal investigation , and federal law enforcement officials are considering whether to open a federal investigation based on state reports . During the October 15 presidential debate , McCain said ACORN `` may be destroying the fabric of American democracy . '' Officials for ACORN -- which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- calls such statements hysteria , but acknowledge that some of their hires have turned in improper voter registrations . On its Web site , the group contends that those employees were lazy and did n't want to work for their pay , making ACORN , not the public , the victim . Those workers have been fired and some even prosecuted , and the false registrations have not led to voter fraud , the group contends . `` Even the general counsel of the RNC [ Republican National Committee ] has acknowledged that he can not cite a single example of an improper vote having been cast as a result of alleged voter registration fraud , '' ACORN Executive Director Steve Kest said . Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell , who headed up President Bush 's 2004 campaign in Ohio , has said that Obama once was an organizer and trainer for ACORN . Obama 's campaign says that 's not true . As an attorney , Obama represented ACORN alongside the U.S. Justice Department in suing the state of Illinois to force state compliance with a federal voting access law , the campaign 's Web site says . And ACORN was not involved in Project Vote , a voter registration drive that Obama ran in Illinois in 1992 , according to the Web site . ACORN , founded in 1970 , calls itself `` the nation 's largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people . '' It says it has more than 400,000 member families organized into more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in 110 cities . Besides voter registration , the group focuses on issues such as predatory lending , minimum wage and funding for public schools , according to the Web site . It also provides free tax-return preparation for low-income people and screening for state and federal benefit programs . Republican hostility for ACORN goes back a long way . Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias said the Bush administration fired him and eight other federal prosecutors in 2006 for political reasons , among them his refusal to pursue election fraud charges against organizations like ACORN . `` It 's easy to make accusations , but ultimately a prosecutor has to prove that case beyond a reasonable doubt in federal court , '' Iglesias said . Officials with the McCain campaign maintain that the dumping of thousands of phony registrations on local election boards makes it harder for those boards to do their job , opening the door to voter fraud on Election Day . CNN 's Carol Costello and Paul Courson contributed to this report .
NEW : Judge denies Pennsylvania GOP request for ACORN voter list . Group denies facilitating election fraud through false registrations . ACORN accuses Republicans of trying to suppress votes . Score: 6