Nonprofit sues state to avoid revealing source

RICHMOND

The Know Campaign, the source of an aborted mass mailing that would have disclosed many Virginians' personal voting history days before the Nov. 3 election, is defying the State Board of Elections' demand that it reveal where the data came from.

In an escalating battle, the nonprofit group sued the state board Friday on constitutional grounds.

The group had planned a personalized mailing to 350,000 Virginia households in the week before the election detailing the recipients' voting history in recent elections and that of their neighbors. The mailing would have disclosed only who voted in a given election, not how they voted.

The mailing was halted at the last minute amid indications that the voter information may have been acquired illegally.

The Board of Elections has been conducting an inquiry into where the group got the voter history lists it used to prepare the mailing. Under state law, such information is restricted to candidates, elected officials and political party chairmen. Those who acquire such lists must sign a statement agreeing not to share the information with anyone else. Violation of the law is a felony.

The Know Campaign has said the voter lists were obtained by the vendor that was contracted to send the mailing but has declined to identify the vendor.

At a meeting last month, the Board of Elections gave the group until noon Friday to provide the information. When it did not, board secretary Nancy Rodrigues said, she called the State Police. Hours later, the group filed suit.

The suit, filed in Richmond Circuit Court, argues that the law limiting distribution of voter history lists violates several provisions of the U.S. Constitution, including the equal protection and free speech clauses.

Anthony Troy, a former state attorney general who represents the Know Campaign, said such groups - whose goal is solely to increase voter participation - should enjoy equal access to the lists.

Access to the information is important to his clients "because they want to know who's going to the polls and who isn't... to encourage those who aren't to please become more active," Troy said.

The planned mailing was modeled after an experiment conducted during a 2006 primary election in Michigan in which voters were sent mailings designed to exert social pressure on their voting behavior.

The mailings - detailing the voting behavior of the recipients and their neighbors - were remarkably effective in pushing those voters to the polls, according to an analysis published by three political scientists in the February 2008 issue of American Political Science Review.

The Know Campaign's registered agent is Ashley Taylor, a Richmond lawyer active in Republican politics. Its executive director is Debra Girvin, a Richmond-area human-resources consultant.

Troy, Taylor and Girvin have all declined to reveal the other principals in the effort or the source of the $150,000 grant that funded it.

The lawsuit would seem to put on hold efforts by state election officials to learn where the group got its voter data.

"We're disappointed, because right now we're no further ahead," Rodrigues said. "We'll make our case in court. It's important that Virginians know that we're trying to protect their privacy."

David Clementson, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, which will defend the board against the suit, said he could not comment on pending litigation.