Moments after receiving a postponement for preliminary hearings on charges of voter registration fraud, a trio of former ACORN employees said they faced constant pressure to drum up 20 newly registered voters every day or face firing -- something county prosecutors say triggered the fraud.

"They said there wasn't a quota system? We definitely had to reach a quota. If we didn't reach a quota we'd lose our jobs," said Mario Grisom, of Wilkinsburg, one of six people charged in the case who showed up for a hearing yesterday. The hearing was rescheduled, however, because they lacked lawyers.

Mr. Grisom and the six others are accused of forging voter registrations during a massive drive in the lead up to last year's elections. Formally known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, the organization is established in cities across the country and has generally supported left-of-center causes.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. last week brought the forgery charges and indicated that an investigation is continuing into both ACORN and the Pittsburgh area officials who oversaw the drive.

The lone ACORN employee who went ahead with a preliminary hearing yesterday was Latasha Kinney, 27, who was held for trial after an hour-long hearing before District Judge Gene Ricciardi.

An FBI agent who assisted Allegheny County detectives with the case said Ms. Kinney told her she was given previously completed voter registration cards to sign by an ACORN supervisor. Prosecutors produced a dozen forms they said were initialed by Ms. Kinney and which contained forgeries ranging from wrong birthdates to erroneous ZIP codes and fake signatures.

One form registered a voter who lives in Virginia, another residing in Monessen.

An affidavit filed with Ms. Kinney's arrest identifies her supervisor as Hazel Hastings and quotes Ms. Kinney as saying Ms. Hastings provided her with the fraudulent registrations.

Ms. Hastings could not be located yesterday.

ACORN lawyers monitored the hearing yesterday. The organization has said that while it had "standards" for performance, there was no set quota -- which would be illegal in Pennsylvania -- and that employees were not under threat of dismissal if they failed to bring in a certain number.

Ms. Kinney, after yesterday's hearing, told a reporter she never filled out any details on the cards she handed in and that her supervisor was helping her to meet a set quota of 20 per day.

"They were already filled out. I just put my initial on it," she said. "I had to have a certain quota in order for her not to fire me."

Ashley Clarke, 21, one of the ACORN workers who postponed her preliminary hearing, said she had a daily quota of 20 to 25 cards to have filled. She denied any forgery, but said the pressure of a quota could have led to mistakes.

"If you're under pressure and you're just going out trying to get people to register to vote, you're not thinking, 'Oh, make sure this is right, make sure this is this and that.' You're just trying to go and say 'please register, so I can meet my quota,' " she said.

Ms. Clarke said that her supervisors sometimes filled in missing information on the cards, such as dates of birth.

For four Allegheny County voters, yesterday's hearing was the first time they laid eyes on the woman whose initials appeared on voter registrations connected to them.

One of them, William Jung, told the court he became suspicious when he received a registration card for his wife, Mildred, six months after she died.

He said he was struck by the fact that the card used her nickname, "Bonnie," when she used Mildred on all official forms.

"I knew this goes on, of course, about voter fraud," Mr. Jung said prior to the hearing. "I'm not angry because they used Bonnie's name particularly, I didn't like it, of course. I'm angry because somebody commits voter fraud."