Virginia republican party man arrested after destroying registration forms.

[Alcon]

I'd doubt this is suppression, since they don't have party registration in VA.

Of course it's suppression.  It doesn't matter whose forms he was throwing away.  Also, why would you conduct a voter registration drive only to throw the forms away?  Unless these forms were somehow moot or requested by the voter to be destroyed, this is suppression, period.  Also, any half-competent registrar would get a written record from the voter if they were destroying a completed form.  I do -- every single time -- because otherwise you can't disprove that you were violating state law without the voters' testimony.  What competent person would risk that, and why?

I'd also question if he any obligation to turn them in. 

Virginia, like every state in the union that I know of (besides North Dakota), legally mandates that completed voter registrations must be returned.  Not doing so is a crime.  How do you think someone could be charged with "four counts of destruction of voter registration forms" if there's no legal obligation?

[Alcon]

As always, J. J., you are almost totally wrong, but have found one thing that you will inevitably latch onto, to pretend you're actually competent in what you're discussing.  Let's begin!

No, but unless the guy was a letter carrier or a a public official, he had no obligation to deliver them.  Simply put, it is not legal to draft people into the US Postal Service.

Wrong in every state I know of, wrong in Virginia.  To wit: "If any person (i) agrees to mail or deliver a signed voter registration application to the voter registrar or other appropriate person authorized to receive the application and (ii) intentionally interferes with the applicant's effort to register either by destroying the application or by failing to mail or deliver the application in a timely manner, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor."  If I function as a voter registrar in a way that suggests to voters that I will turn in their application for them, and don't, I am guilty of a crime -- in Washington, in Virginia.  I have been doing voter reg for a while now, bro, and everyone knows this.

As to why, because they were duplicates, or at least he thought most of them were.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/worker-for-gop-hired-contractor-charged-with-dumping-va-voter-registration-forms/2012/10/19/86062d7a-19f1-11e2-ad4a-e5a958b60a1e_story.html

There is no indication there that Mr. Small thought they were duplicates -- just that they were.  That article doesn't even say Mr. Small was claiming that.  Also, read it more carefully.  Three of the eight voters were already registered.  One wasn't, but was a felon (did Mr. Small run felony background checks?)  Four were new voters and not duplicates.  Mr. Small is responsible for nearly disenfranchising four people, and there is no reason to assume he knew the other four applications were moot.

The line I assume you'll draw on to defend Mr. Small's applications is this: "If any person intentionally solicits multiple registrations from any one person or intentionally falsifies a registration application, he shall be guilty of a Class 5 felony."  That line does not prohibit submitting applications for those already registered.  It prohibits soliciting someone to register multiple times -- something that submitting a voter registration when you're already registered won't do.  People do that all the time.

Only if the person is a hired third party, which he was.  If someone hands you a voter registration form, and you are not an official (or a letter carrier), you have no obligation to do anything with it.

Demonstrably false.  I doubt that's even true in Pennsylvania.

[Alcon]

I'm glad that we can get over this "massive GOP voter fraud" crap -- there was never any reason to believe this was a Republican conspiracy of any sort.  Small will get the criminal conviction he deserves, he's already fired, J. J. is wrong, and life goes on as normal.