A Virgina sheriff confirmed to TPM on Thursday that his office is investigating whether a man seen tossing completed voter registration forms into a dumpster is connected to the state Republican Party.
Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson (R) said his office may make an announcement about the case as soon as Thursday afternoon depending up the outcome of interviews conducted earlier in the day.
His office began investigating after manager Rob Johnson at a home good store called Tuesday Morning in Harrisonburg, Va. spotted a man on Monday afternoon throwing eight voter registration forms into a dumpster behind the shopping center where he works.
In an interview with TPM on Wednesday, Johnson said the man was driving a black Toyota with Pennsylvania license plates. He said he thought he saw the same car parked outside the Republican Partys Harrisonburg Victory Office the following day. The office is just down the street from the shopping center.
I spotted the car that the gentleman was driving when he threw the voter registration applications into the dumpster parked in front of the Republican campaign headquarters, Johnson said.
A staffer at the Harrisonburg Victory Office referred TPM to the Republican Party of Virginia, which has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
Virginia does not register voters by political party, so it would be difficult for someone to discard forms from their political opponents. Rockingham County Registrar Doug Geib said that his office was able to process the recovered forms after receiving advice from the Virginia State Board of Elections.
