ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Republican Party has asked federal election regulators to investigate whether a group that registers voters illegally campaigned for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill.

KMOV

Two workers said in the video they were told by ACORN to solicit votes for McCaskill while registering voters. State Auditor Claire McCaskill is slightly ahead of Sen. Jim Talent in their race for the U.S. Senate, according to a poll.

The complaint sent to the Federal Elections Commission this week points to an online video testimony from former employees of the St. Louis branch of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now _ or ACORN.

The video, produced by Pubdef.net, an online political blog based in St. Louis, shows two ACORN workers protesting last week that they were never paid for signing up new voters. Two workers said in the video they were told by ACORN to solicit votes for McCaskill while registering voters.

McCaskill is facing Republican incumbent Sen. Jim Talent in the Nov. 7 election.

ACORN officials called the allegations completely false.

"This is not true that we are working for McCaskill. These charges come from a fired employee accused of theft and she appears to be angry," said ACORN national spokesman Kevin Whelan.

Josephine Perkins, the fired ACORN worker speaking in the video, had an unlisted telephone number.

The four-page complaint claims that it's illegal for ACORN to solicit votes because the nonprofit organization is not registered to do so.

McCaskill spokeswoman Adrianne Marsh said the campaign has never solicited help from ACORN.

"The McCaskill for Missouri campaign adheres to all FEC regulations and does not communicate with unauthorized organizations," Marsh said.

Missouri Republican Party Executive Director Jared Craighead called the alleged activity "egregiously unlawful."

"We will act promptly and aggressively to protect the honesty of the coming election," Craighead said in a statement.

ACORN also came under fire this week by St. Louis election officials who claimed workers turned in up to 1,500 potentially bogus voter registration cards, including ones for dead and underage people.

The national group has been criticized in the past for similar registration card problems in other states.

ACORN contends that the group does honest work in signing up thousands of U.S. voters and that sometimes, mistakes with voter cards are made in the process.

Talent spokesman Rich Chrismer called the party's allegations of illegal campaigning for McCaskill serious.

"We are hopeful the FEC investigates the matter fully, particularly as it relates to the McCaskill campaign and the potential political exploitation of a tax-exempt organization," Chrismer said.