PITTSBURGH — Two former members of political advocacy group ACORN said Friday that they had to meet voter registration quotas, otherwise they faced losing their jobs.

The two were among seven workers charged in Allegheny County last week with either forging, illegally soliciting or illegally filling out voter cards in the lead up to the 2008 elections.

Mario Grisom and Ashley Clarke told a Pittsburgh newspaper about the quotas outside a courtroom Friday where preliminary hearings were taking place.

"We definitely had to reach a quota. If we didn't reach a quota we'd lose our jobs," said Grisom, 28, of Wilkinsburg.

Clarke, 21, of Pittsburgh, said supervisors with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now would sometimes complete partially filled applications. ACORN works to get low-income people to vote and lists offices in 41 states and the District of Columbia.

"The bosses — if the date of birth wasn't filled out — they would find it and fill it out for us," she said.

Hearings for Grisom, Clarke and four others were postponed so they could get lawyers. A seventh defendant was held for trial.

District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. said last week that he hoped the workers would help authorities determine whether Allegheny County ACORN officials will be charged with requiring the illegal quotas or otherwise directing that voter registrations be faked.

A spokesman Friday would only say that the investigation was continuing.

Authorities targeted 100 local ACORN canvassers after county elections officials started noticing dozens of possibly forged registration forms in August. ACORN registered 38,000 new voters in southwestern Pennsylvania, including about 33,600 in the county last year, according to Zappala.

This month in Nevada, authorities charged ACORN and two former employees with illegally paying canvassers to sign up voters. ACORN denied the charges.