Nonprofit halts planned mailing of voting history

A planned mass mailing that would have disclosed many Virginians' personal voting history was halted Wednesday amid indications that the information may have been acquired illegally.

An inquiry into the matter is under way at the State Board of Elections, where officials were surprised to learn that a nonprofit group called the Know Campaign was planning to disseminate the voting data to 350,000 randomly chosen households.

The mail piece, personalized for each recipient, would have recapped a resident 's participation in recent elections and that of his or her neighbors. The piece described the data as public information obtained from the Board of Elections.

Nancy Rodrigues, the board secretary, said she was "shocked" to read a Virginian-Pilot report about the effort, which the group characterized as an attempt to boost voter turnout in Tuesday's gubernatorial election.

"We did not release that information to the Know Campaign," Rodrigues said. "Nonprofits are not given that access."

Under state law, lists of people who voted in elections can be released only to candidates, elected officials and political party chairmen. Those who get such access must sign a statement agreeing not to share the data with anyone else. Violation of the law is a felony.

The lists identify only who voted in a given election, not how they voted.

Debra Girvin, the Know Campaign's executive director, said she had been advised by the group's attorneys that the mailing was legal. But after questions were raised about it, she halted it until the matter could be clarified.

The origins of the Know Campaign remained murky Wednesday.

Girvin, a Richmond-area human-resources consultant, has declined to reveal the other principals in the effort or the source of the $150,000 foundation grant that funded it.

She has said the effort grew out of the kNOw Campaign, which helped defeat a 2002 ballot question on a sales tax for road improvements in Hampton Roads.

But state Del. Brenda Pogge, R-York County, a key player in the 2002 campaign, said Wednesday that she knew nothing about the new effort.

"They've stolen our name," Pogge said.

She said the 2002 organization lapsed and the name was taken over in 2004 by a new leadership group that included Michael Wade, now 3rd District Republican chairman and a staffer with the Republican Party of Virginia.

Wade said the reorganized group worked to oppose transportation-related tax increases in the 2006 General Assembly. He said he is no longer involved with it.

"I have no idea where they gained access to the information," Wade said. "We have not released it to anybody."

Despite the group's apparent Republican roots, Girvin continued to insist Wednesday that the current effort is a nonpartisan campaign to get more Virginians to participate in the democratic process.

"We really thought this was a good idea," she said. "And maybe it wasn't such a good idea."

Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com