Arrest made in Harrisonburg voter registration case

The Rockingham County Sheriff's office has arrested a Pennsylvania man and charged him with attempting to throw away filled out voter registration forms.

Colin Small, 31 year old male from Phoenixville, PA has been charged with 8 felonies and 5 misdemeanors in connection with the controversy. He is employed by Pinpoint, a company that was hired by the Republican Party of Virginia to help with voter registration.

        (Colin Small's mug shot courtesy/ Rockingham County Sheriff's Office)

UPDATE:  The Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins released the following statement in reaction to the arrest of Small:

"We were alarmed by allegations recently made regarding an individual in Harrisonburg. The actions taken by this individual are a direct contradiction of both his training and explicit instructions given to him. The Republican Party of Virginia will not tolerate any action by any person that could threaten the integrity of our electoral process.

The individual in question was fired immediately after we learned of his alleged actions. We are grateful to the local sheriff's office and Registrar for acting so quickly to protect our democratic process and will fully cooperate with any requests made by them.  However, since there is currently an investigation underway, we will refrain from any further comments until they have concluded their inquiry. "

Not surprisingly, democratic bloggers are on fire with this news tonight. The initial scuttle came from Ben Tribbet at Not Larry Sabato, who with help discovered Small's LinkedIn page which says he is a current employee of the Republican National Committee.

Here is the full release from Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan F. Hutcheson:

PRESS RELEASE:

October 18, 2012

The Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office has made an arrest in the investigation of voter registration fraud that began on the afternoon of October 15^th when law enforcement received a citizen complaint of voter registration application forms being found in a dumpster behind a business in the City of Harrisonburg.

 The following individual has been charged:

• Mr. Colin Small, 31 year old male of Phoenixville, PA
• Voter Registration Supervisor employed by Pinpoint, an independent private organization contracted by the Republican Party of Virginia for purposes of general voter registration.
• Copy of mugshot attached to this release

 The following charges have been placed:

• Four (4) counts of Destruction of Voter Registration Application, Class 1 Misdemeanor, Section 24.2-1002.01, Code of Virginia

• Eight (8) counts of Disclosure of Voter Registration Application, Class 5 Felony, Section 24.2-1002.01, Code of Virginia

• One (1) count of Obstruction of Justice, Class 1 Misdemeanor, Section 18.2-460(A), Code of Virginia

These charges are based upon lengthy consultation with and assistance from the Rockingham County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office regarding the investigation.

There is no indication that this activity was widespread in our jurisdiction; it appears to be very limited in nature but there is the possibility that additional charges may be filed in the future if it is deemed appropriate.  There are no other details that we can release at this time, as this is still an active and ongoing criminal investigation. 

Anyone who may have a question regarding their own voter registration status is encouraged to contact the County Registrar’s office or the Sheriff’s Office.

Comments

[Brett]

Except his LinkedIn profile lists him as working for the RNC for three months. So might be more to this.

[Meh]

A typical Romney supporter. Can't be trusted just like the man himself.

[jeff]

@Meh- don't drag the Presidential candidate into this.. whether it's Obama or Romney.

[Amy]

Republicans are scum.

[Amy]

Looks like a skin head.

[Richard Foss]

The Republican party has disavowed him with words - but will they pay for his lawyer? If they do, he's their boy and they bear responsibility for his actions. Let's watch this one.

[Rhymes With Right]

This Republican hopes that Colin Small does a long term in prison if these charges are proved in a court of law. Vote fraud is vote fraud no matter who commits it.

[repsac3]

Aren't there allegations that the same thing happened at a registration outfit hired by the Republican party in FL, both in a previous election AND this year? (There were allegations in 2010, I believe, but the Republicans in FL hired the same firm this year, with the same results.)

Maybe these are connected and maybe they're not, but they sure paint Republicans in a bad light, voter-fraud wise... Maybe they ought to spend more time cracking down on the folks they hire to register folks, instead of disenfranchising students, minorities, and old folks... I'm just sayin'...

[Alex]

The article states "There is no indication that this activity was widespread in our jurisdiction; it appears to be very limited in nature"

How can you make this statement? How can you possibly know at this point whether it was limited or widespread?

It would be hard to know that even with an in-depth investigation since no one in a position to know about the felonies will have any incentive to do anything but deny knowledge.

RPVA didn't hire Pinpoint to work in just this one jurisdiction did they? Colin Small is surely not Pinpoint's only employee. Do you really believe he is the only Pinpoint employee to do this, that he dreamed up the idea on his own, and didn't tell a soul about his scheme. What are the odds that he got caught on his very first trip to the dumpster to destroy registration forms?

People gave their lives so we can have the right to vote. RPVA should fire Pinpoint now and publicly disavow the people who chose and oversaw them, and publicly direct all staff and volunteers to cooperate fully with the criminal investigation - even if it implicates RPVA officers. And Colin Small should serve long hard time, along with his bosses.

[smintheus]

Nathan Sproul's companies have been notorious for doing this on behalf of the Republican National Committee since at least 2004. In 2004, a Nevada TV station sent a film crew to one of Sproul's offices and they broadcast pictures of a dumpster full of discarded Democratic voter registration forms. And yet the RNC and Romney have hired Sproul again this time around. It's no accident that Republican operatives keep destroying voter application forms submitted by non-Republican voters. That's their modus operandi. Their "plausible deniability" is increasingly implausible.

[CGB]

There's no way he acted independently. Someone above him gave him instructions to do this. And I hope he makes a deal with the cops to get the real culprits behind this.

[Seth]

It's Democratic Bloggers, since you're using the plural.

"Democrat" describes singular, one person. It does not describe the plural or a group.

Democrat Party is the typical Republican pejorative. And no one refers to "Democrat Bloggers".

[twophad]

How are they going to recover the lost ballots?

[Anima Amiga]

If we Americans cannot trust the electoral process then we are geficked. Totally. We are looking at a loss of consensus and quite possibly post-electoral violence. We must adhere to the process and the procedures or else we're really in for some pain.

[Jeremy Blackbird]

In all honesty, it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference who we vote for, OR who wins the election. The Bilderbergs and the privatized banks of the "Federal" Reserve are the real decision-makers, not the people of our country, not congress, not even the president. Look it up. They're so shameless they won't even deny it.

[Jeremy Blackbird]

"Permit me to issue and control the money of the nation and I care not who makes its laws." — Mayer Amsched Rothchild, a prominent European banker in the eighteenth century

[danthony]

Why is it that whenever voter fraud rears it's ugly head. That it is the GOP that is in most likelihood involved. Maybe they should be the voters who must register before voting.

[Luis Wu]

Typical Republican tactics.

[Daniel]

Nothing on the Virginia Voter Registration Form declares whether or not someone is a Republican or a Democrat. I filled one out this year because I moved, and they don't ask which party you are affiliated with.

[Deborah]

@Daniel: If you don't affiliate with a party, how do they know which primary to allow you to vote in? Or is it open to any/all in Virginia?

[BL]

Seems right on par for the republican party... nothing to look at here.

[Andy Cox]

So he was working for the republican's throwing away voter registrations that were most likely from republicans since it was them that were recruiting the voters and no one here thinks maybe he is a democrat that went in hoping to sabotage them?

[Bill]

I think he is a democrat. They are the sneaky bastards who do this all day everyday. I Love the intolerant liberals. They do this crap all day everyday... ACORN, Planned Parenthood, and other dishonest crap and here is one incident and they go off pointing fingers...

[Christina]

As Daniel commented, Virginia has an open primary, you do not register with a party on your voter registration card. It is unfortunate that this man did this, however, because it does paint a bad name for the republican party as can be seen in the previous comments, despite their obvious lack of affiliation with him.

[VA Curmudgeon]

Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this article and you can see this by the comments already posted here. The article mentiones that there is no indication that this activity was widespread. But it will be interesting to see how many folks are turned away from the polls on election day and by that time, it will be too late.