◼ Why Is the Voter Participation Center Spoofing the Virginia State Board of Elections’ Return Address? - Bryan Preston/PJM
Earlier today, news broke that the Romney campaign is requesting a state-level investigation of a voter registration group in Virginia. That group, the Voter Participation Center, has been sending out voter registration forms to people all over the commonwealth, hundreds of thousands of forms per month. The Washington Post and the Richmond Times-Dispatch have published stories on the Voter Participation Center and the allegations that the Romney campaign has levied against it. But both stories barely hint at what the VPC may be doing.
The center’s registration forms, some of which have been addressed to the dead, children, even pets and felons ineligible to vote in Virgina, state that recipients are eligible to vote. They come with some personal information already filled in, and instruct recipients to send the forms in to the Virginia State Board of Elections via Business Reply Mail to an address pre-printed on the form. But where do the returned forms really go?
...The address for the State Board of Elections is correct up to the zip code. But the zip code on the form will send it somewhere other than the actual State Board of Elections....
The evident misdirection of the return address and the permit number registered in Pennsylvania all beg for an answer: Why? These returned registration forms contain real personal information including full legal names, date of birth, and even Social Security numbers. What is the Voter Participation Center really up to, in having forms returned to an address that it says is controlled by a state entity, when that is not the truth? Additionally, where are the completed forms really going?...
Asked if the group is complying with Virginia’s request that it stop pre-populating its voter registration forms, Gardner said that the group is going to stop.
I asked her about the zip code issue, explaining that on the group’s forms the return address for the state election board is correct up to the zip code, which is not the correct zip code but a zip code owned by the VPC. Gardner said that she did not understand the question, so I asked it again and directed her to our story. She replied that the zip code is “assigned by the postal service so they can track business reply mail.” That does not explain why the zip code leads to a post office in Richmond, VA or what happens to the forms en route to the state elections officials....
◼ The Voter Participation Center appears to be spoofing the Virginia State Board of Elections. The Voter Participation Center appears to be receiving forms that respondents believe are going to the Virginia State Board of Elections, but are not. Why? How many states is the VPC operating in? - Bryan Preston/PJM
...Asked if the group is complying with Virginia’s request that it stop pre-populating its voter registration forms, Gardner said that the group is going to stop.
I asked her about the zip code issue, explaining that on the group’s forms the return address for the state election board is correct up to the zip code, which is not the correct zip code but a zip code owned by the VPC. Gardner said that she did not understand the question, so I asked it again and directed her to our story. She replied that the zip code is “assigned by the postal service so they can track business reply mail.” That does not explain why the zip code leads to a post office in Richmond, VA or what happens to the forms en route to the state elections officials....