Cross posted from Blue Virginia
To put it mildly, this is not acceptable.
So the forms disappear from the office, reappear in another city, get mailed in after the deadline from a fake address, and the registrar's son- who lives in that city where the forms ended up- starts calling people, lying about who he is, falsely identifies himself the same way the forms were falsely misaddressed and tries to threaten those who were upset about the situation.
Not only did the registrar or her son not get charged with a crime- but Debbie Logan is still the registrar in Harrisonburg today.
Who supervises Debbie Logan? Members of the electoral board- including one of Debbie's good friends- Suzanne Obenshain- wife of the local Republican State Senator (and Attorney General hopeful for 2013), Mark Obenshain. Suzanne served as a member during this whole 2008 debacle with the voter forms, until mid 2011, when the General Assembly passed a new law that said electoral board members could not be related to candidates or officeholders in their area. That bill passed the Senate 39-0 with Obenshain abstaining. Obenshain did nothing to remove Logan- her friend- after this 2008 debacle.
It's pretty shocking that this law even needed to be passed, but Obenshain refused to allow the shocking appearance of impropriety here to rethink her role as both the election judge and spouse of the State Senator from the area.
I mean, WTF, is Virginia a third-world country or what? And sorry, but I don't buy Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's (Kookinelli's) explanation of his supposed helplessness in this matter. For a guy who somehow managed to insert himself in every other hot-button issue known to man (not to mention Mann, as in Michael Mann), it seems to me that if he really wanted to investigate the "voter fraud capital of Virginia," he could do so (or at least make a big stink about NOT being able to do so). Meanwhile, the clock is ticking towards election day - in what could be a razor-thin margin for Obama vs. Willard, Kaine vs. Felix - and, as NLS writes, "if your registration was destroyed, [Harrisonburg Registrar Debbie] Logan won't even be able to tell you until it is too late to challenge it." Not acceptable.
P.S. Gotta love the deafening silence from the Virginia conservative blogosphere, and the pathetic #FAIL by the Virginia media in digging into this situation. Thank goodness for a few intrepid bloggers, like Ben "NLS" Tribbett.
UPDATE: Also see Virginia Lawmakers Ask Justice Department to Investigate Voter Registration Fraud -- "Congressmen Jim Moran (VA-08), Bobby Scott (VA-03), and Gerry Connolly (VA-11) today sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder calling on the Department of Justice to conduct a multi-state investigation of voter registration fraud connected to Strategic Allied Consulting and its subsidiary Pinpoint."
UPDATE #2: State Senator Donald McEachin asks the federal DOJ for assistance:
Dear Attorney General Holder,
I would like to ask for the assistance of the Department of Justice with a concerning situation that has developed here in Virginia over the past few days. A gentleman, who was later found to be a paid Republican operative, disposed of several voter registration applications, an illegal act. We are not certain of the extent of the situation - whether other forms have been disposed of, whether other operatives have been involved in this kind of behavior and/or what other kinds of misdeeds have occurred.
I was hopeful we could resolve and address this situation right here in the Commonwealth, but the Republican controlled State Board of Elections has refused to ask for an investigation. The Republican Attorney General claims he cannot investigate without a request from the State Board of Elections. This from the very same attorney general who did not hesitate to ignore, bully and run over a similar government appointed board to forcibly install regulations on abortion clinics. Now, suddenly, he says his hands are tied and is unwilling to even try to exercise any discretion to investigate this egregious situation. Apparently, Republicans, who claim to have been so concerned about he sanctity of our electoral process, are much more sanguine when their own colleagues are found to be involved.
Voting is our most basic right as citizens and, in less than two weeks, we will be voting for president of the United States, perhaps the most important vote we cast every four years. We must have confidence that our electoral system is safe and secure. While Republicans here in Virginia and elsewhere have postured about voters cheating the system, here in Virginia, the fraud is being committed on the voters. I and my fellow Virginians want to be certain that, by Election Day, we can be confident that all eligible citizens are able to vote and that none have been thwarted by the antics of paid partisan operatives.
I would ask you and the Justice Department to please launch an investigation so that we Virginians can be certain that the extent of this heinous situation has been determined and can know that it has been stopped and resolved.
Thank you for your help in this serious matter. Please feel free to contact me if I can be of any assistance.
Sincerely,
A. Donald McEachin