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Subscribe to RSSA campaign worker linked to a controversial Republican consulting firm has been arrested in Virginia and charged with throwing voter registration forms into a dumpster.
The suspect, Colin Small, 31, was described by a local law enforcement official as a "supervisor" in a Republican Party financed operation to register voters in Rockingham County in rural Virginia, a key swing state in the Nov. 6 election. He was arrested after a local business owner in the same Harrisonburg, Va., shopping center where the local GOP campaign headquarters is located spotted Small tossing a bag into the trash, according to a statement Thursday by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s office. The bag was later found to contain eight voter registration forms, it said. The arrest was reported Thursday night by WWBT-TV in Richmond.
Colin Small
The case comes on the heels of a controversy last month over the activities of Strategic Allied Consulting, an Arizona based consulting firm that was paid $3 million by the Republican National Committee this year to register voters in five battleground states, including Virginia. The firm, run by veteran GOP operative Nathan Sproul, was recently fired by the RNC following reports that its workers had submitted hundreds of suspicious voter registration forms in Florida.
Sean Spicer, communications director for the RNC, told NBC News Thursday night that Small has now been fired as well, and that he had been directly employed by a payroll company called Pinpoint, which was previously used by Strategic Allied Consulting to pay workers for the GOP registration drive being run by the consulting company.
Related: RNC cuts ties with firm over voter fraud allegations
Small lists himself on his LinkedIn resume as a “Grassroots field director at Republican National Committee” from August 2012 to the present. But Spicer denied that Small was ever directly employed by the RNC and said he will be “told to take that down.” Small was reportedly in jail Thursday night and could not be reached for comment.
Strategic Allied Consulting also tried to distance itself from the arrested campaign worker. “The relationship between Strategic Allied and Colin Small ended on September 27th, when our firm stopped running voter registration programs in Virginia and other states. We had no contact with Small or any other voter registration worker at any point thereafter,” a spokesman for the firm said in a statement emailed to NBC News. “The reprehensible conduct it appears Small engaged in happened nearly three weeks later. Strategic Allied had nothing to do with such regrettable, illegal activity. We hope he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Spicer, the spokesman for the RNC, said that after the RNC and the Republican Party of Virginia severed their relationships with Strategic Allied Consulting, the state party continued to use some of the firm's same workers, including Small, by paying them through Pinpoint.
The Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd talks to NBC's Michael Isikoff about Florida voting fraud and what's being done about it now.
“The actions taken by this individual are a direct contradiction of both his training and explicit instructions given to him,” said Pat Mullins, the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, in a statement Thursday night. “The Republican Party of Virginia will not tolerate any action by any person that could threaten the integrity of our electoral process."
The Rockingham County Sheriff’s office said that, after an investigation and "lengthy" consultations with local prosecutors, Small was arrested and charged with eight felony counts and four misdemeanors under Virginia voter fraud laws and one misdemeanor count of obstruction of justice. “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,” said the statement from Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson.
It is not clear what motive Small might have had for throwing away the registration forms. Voters in Virginia do not register by party so there is no way to know whether the recovered registration forms were from Democratic or Republican voters. One GOP source said that a campaign worker could be tempted to throw away forms that have incomplete information since there are penalties under Virginia law for not submitting completed registration forms within 15 days after they are signed. It could not be determined Thursday night if the forms allegedly tossed by Small were incomplete.
Sproul’s companies have been accused by Democrats in the past of engaging in tactics aimed at suppressing voter turnout, including throwing away Democratic registration forms. Sproul has denied any wrongdoing and no charges against his companies have been filed. But authorities in Florida said they are conducting a statewide investigation of Strategic Allied’s operations there following reports of suspicious registration forms submitted by its workers, including forms with phony addresses and similar looking signatures. Sproul blamed the suspicious forms on a few “bad apples” who were working for him.
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Are you kidding me? All this when Obummer is registering any thing that moves?
Obummer isnt registering anyone...the political parties are doing the registering.
There must be a mistake..... The GOP would never cheat to get their way.....right?
What a surprise, voter fraud and Republicans in same sentence. First the GOP tries to suppress the turnout in GOP controlled states, now once again, they're involved in criminal fraud. This is typical thuggish behavior we've come to expect from the party of no. Their election strategy is simple. If you don't have the numbers to win, just cheat.
This is beyond F#&$ED up!
I am Mitt from the planet Kolob. I've come here for your guns and woman. Take me to your leader.....
Ya .. makes about as much sense as your conspiracy theory post.
So let's require everyone to show their photo ID to vote, then this problem would be over.
Exactly how would an ID prevent your registration forms from being tossed out by GOP scum?
I don't have a GOP or Dem problem... just FAX news and the Journal have NOT ONE WORD ON IT!!!.... I guess it doesn't fit their "spin".....
Rubbish isn't worth wasting time on.
Wait for Brian Williams tonight as he will spend the full 30 minutes to fill you in. But don't expect to hear the more important news of Gov. Romney leading Obama in the polls or ANYTHING negative of this failed administration.
Looks like the Repulicans were right....there is voter fraud happening!
Now socialist media tell us about the dem's fraud as well not to mention the Philadelphia fiasco last year. You morons.
The only fraud going on is obamafraud! Sick!
spud....quite a dumb statement....considering the story you commented on.
There's not much law, good or bad, in parts of rural Virginia.
This had to be a very overt offense for the authorities to become aware of it.
Sad politics for a very sad time because the REPURGTURDS try to win at all COSTS: lying, cheating, anti-Americanism, turning whites against minorities and making a complete and utter mess of deciding how we appoint people to political office. These people are DEMONICALLY inspired and have no hearts.
Sad politics for a very sad time because the donkey ball sucken democraps will try to win at all COSTS: lying, cheating, anti-Americanism, turning blacks against whites and making a complete and utter mess of deciding how we appoint people to political office. These people are DEMONICALLY inspired and have no hearts.
I think someone should notify the attendents that you have stopped taking your meds and attempted to escape. Paranoid schizophrenia compounded by trailer trash dumb is a really hopeless diagnosis. I am so sorry for you.
I think someone should notify the attendents that you have stopped taking your meds and attempted to escape. Paranoid schizophrenia compounded by trailer trash dumb is a really hopeless diagnosis. I am so sorry for you.
Elections are a bigger joke than marriage.
the divisions that exist within the usa today are part and parcel of karl rove. the voter fraud, and it is fraud, for it is premeditated. there have been no cases of voter fraud and now the RNC and their puppet masters are using every technique known to assailants to win an election, that if it were held today, legally and free with everyone voting the dems would win in walk off. the GOpers are crooks, hypocrites, and really anti-constitutional, traitors to the middle class and kiss ass to the wealthy amongst them. this de facto elite bunch are scumbags, worse than animals.
obama/biden 2012
If the voting process isn't heavily monitored the GOP will cheat.
I know who I am voting for and I have been a registered voter for over 35 years. But Every american has a right to vote. Why someone would keep that from happening, deserves Federal Prison. This should be done on a Federal level. Since ROMENY's son threatened the President on the Radio, the same should apply to him. No one is allowed to hit the PRESIDENT. Apprently in my opinion ROMNEY'S family is a little nuts like him. But we all have a box of choclates don't we
It must be those incredible and righteous morals mormons all claim to have!
Yeah- like the dems do anything different.
If they did they should go to JAIL! I think you miss the point. It's a crime.
What else is new????
The RNC will do anything to win seems to me that
they never want to be fair They are trying to blame Obama for the four people
killed at or embassy but forget that their paryt is responsible for 4000+ lives
starting two unnessary wars in the name of freedom
Amen to that Jake80!!!
Hey Jake! You had better just watch yourself! LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!! How DARE you not support our military?!
seriously though, conservatives love to forget when Bush started his bogus wars that have cost us thousands of lives and trillions of dollars, if you didn't support it, the typical republican line was 'LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!!' 'DAMN UNAMERICAN COMMIES NOT SUPPORTING OUR COMMANDER IN CHIEF, GET BACK TO RUSSIA!'
but now that they're on that side of the fence (for the most absurd reasons...Obama is taking our guns! Obama is a muslim! Obama took over all capitalist enterprises EVER!), theyre actually being 'true patriots' when they bash the government and Commander in Chief.
hypocrites much?
yes, very much.
what about the DEMS in Ohio.. Same thing.. this is so sad.. People need to get a grip.. Just because a few people go whacko doesnt mean the whole party is bad.. All these people need to be jailed and i mean both sides.. This helps no one..
Agreed.
Republicans are just as self-serving as the Dems. I've been voting Republican all my life and they've never sent anything to me, not even a simple brochure, bumper sticker, yard sign, nothing. Plus, I detest the fact that the Republican party has been hijacked by the Christian right and all they seem to focus on now are family and moral issues instead of economics and then they marginalize and disregard people like Ron Paul.
Does anyone really know who this Small guy is? I'd like to see more background on him. But whatever, anyone tampering w/voting should be imprisoned - PERIOD.
We need to clean The House and throw all the GOP trash in the dumpster!!
Bunch of pathetic liars!!
Obama/Biden/Pelosi/Reid-2012
"But Spicer denied that Small was ever directly employed by the RNC and said he will be “told to take that down.” Small was reportedly in jail Thursday night and could not be reached for comment."
The quote above OUTLINES EXACTLY how the GOP will shrug this off! Almost hand in hand with the strategy for SUPERPACs, deniability of ownership. We are ALL SO SURE that this guy was NEVER told to do this by anyone...HOW COULD HE BE, he didn't even work for us.
However, BOTH PARTIES are and will be guilty of this again in the future! THEY CAN'T HELP THEMSELVES....it's INBRED!
It is COMPLETELY IGNORANT to think that the GOP is in this alone!
How can so many smart people be so Blind, is the question I pose to most on this board?
My goodness, The Dems have been supporting voter fraud issues since Obama 1st election as we all know, they had dead people, mickey mouse and many others support him.. good thing they catch this on both sides!! We need voter ID and plenty of time for mail absentee votes to count.. this is much to do about nothing as the dems would say if it was Dems caught again
Read "The Appeal" by John Grisham which seems to apply to this situation. The ending however, does not leave us with a good view of politics. It should be against the law for firms to register voters. They are adults and can do it themselves. The situation described in Virginia then, wouldn't be so likely to happen. It is audacity that he would throw out voter registration as he is making decisions for many people.
I have sat at plenty of voter registration tables. You're right, people should register themselves, but a lot of them forget, or wait until the deadline has passed, or just don't know where to go to get registration forms. It is possible, where I live, to register on-line. If this is possible in your state, then that is what I recommend. You don't even have to get in your car.
I don't have an issue with helping people register to vote. If it serves to remind them that voting is a civic responsibility. I believe everyone should become informed, read up on the issues, and vote. I believe this because we aren't just talking about electing a President. There are local school boards, park districts, city councils, state assembly seats, etc. etc. Plus, in my state, there are propositions on the ballot, tax measures and the like.
I know a lot of people don't think that local issues matter, but they matter more than the national issues. They affect your life far more directly. And a whole lot of our national politicians begin at the local level. If you weed out the bad guys early, you don't have them screwing up the national stuff.
I have registered Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Greens, even a Communist. And I turned in every single one of those forms. Freedom and democracy are precious. Anyone who tries to subvert the democratic process in any way cannot call themselves a patriot. No patriot would EVER deliberately undermine the Constitution.