Story Analysis: Ex-ACORN Worker: 'I paid the price' for voter registration fraud

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/22/voter.fraud/index.html?iref=newssearch

This article is about Clifton Mitchell, a worker for ACORN who got caught registering non-existent voters. It starts off with a short soft lede with a mysterious twist, explaining who Mitchell is and what he did: "Clifton Mitchell helped register nearly 2,000 for the community group ACORN. But none of them actually existed."

The next two paragraphs are back-up to the lede, providing background about Mitchell's history with ACORN, as well as his family life to explain that he needed money to support his wife and kids.

The nut graph follows in the fourth paragraph, explaining that ACORN pressured Mitchell and his team if they did not meet their quota of registered voters, giving the reader the "so what," in terms of why Mitchell and his team did what they did.

The rest of the article has more quotes from Mitchell about how he carried out the false registration, then quotes from a law professor, giving his opinion on the issue of registration fraud and why workers feel pressured to take part in it. Then the article moves on to the most important issue for readers: how this negatively can affect voters and the outcome of the election.

The kicker is a quote from Mitchell, further expressing his regret for getting involved and claiming that he did not take part in it for election purposes. This provides effective closure for the article, summing up the key topics of Mitchell's incident, as well as its possible negative effects on the election.