ACORN does pay people (by the hour) to register voters. There is nothing illegal about doing that. ACORN does do quality control on the registrations that their workers bring in. They separate out any that look like they could be problematic, and they flag them and turn them in to the authorities. This is what they did in Ohio.

I agree that all of the people who work on elections should be doing so in a non-partisan capacity. That's one of our biggest problems.