Even though we're more than four years from the 2008 presidential election, the battles of that historic race are far from over.

In St. Joseph County, the former Democratic party chair and three former voter registration workers are facing an April trial over charges that fake signatures were put on petitions for presidential primary candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

St. Joseph County Democratic Party Chairman Buck Morgan and the three former Democratic voter registration workers — Dustin Blythe, Pam Brunette and Bev Shelton — face multiple charges related to the alleged forgery of signatures, including that of former Gov. Joe Kernan, on the petitions.

Meanwhile, a short-term budget bill introduced this week by House Republicans includes a provision to ban funding for the organization ACORN, a group that has essentially been out of business for three years. ACORN has long been a bogeyman of conservatives, who lambasted their voter registration efforts, which focused primarily on poor and minority communities.

You may recall that ACORN's Lake County voter registration drive was one of the worst in the nation for instances of fraud.