Let’s Track Down A Lawbreaker
By Greg L | 5 March 2008 | Crime, Blogs, Prince William County | 11 Comments
I just have to wonder who could be behind the website removestirrup.com.
The site showed up sometime last fall, advocating the defeat of Gainesville Supervisor John Stirrup in the November 2007 election. It never provided the disclaimer required under Virginia election laws, and there were clearly additional expenses for campaign materials which were pretty popular during protests by Mexicans Without Borders which never showed up in a campaign finance report. It was kind of trivial at the time I originally encountered it, but I happened to run across it again while digging into something that would nominally appear unrelated.
I think it’s time to peel back the layer of anonymity at play here, and see just who likes to play so fast and loose with Virginia election laws and put themselves in the cross-hairs of some fairly substantial fines. Here’s what the activist behind this effort is likely on the hook for:
1. Failure to provide required disclosure information:
Virginia Code Section 24.2-956.1 requires that a disclosure be provided on all third-party campaign advertisements that advocate the election or defeat of a political candidate in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The website failed to provide any such disclosure, and actively attempts to conceal the identity of the individual maintaining this website. This is a violation of Virginia election laws, and can be punishable with a fine of $1,000, or in the case of a willful violation, it is a Class 1 misdemeanor. I’d say this was pretty willful.
2. Failure to file campaign finance reports:
Virginia Code Section 24.2-945.2 requires that individuals advocating the election or defeat of a political candidate, ballot question, or other election in Virginia file regular campaign finance statements if they spend over $500 in an election cycle, which is very likely. The website produced hundreds of yard signs and other campaign materials during the November 2007 election as well as maintaining a website, and has so far failed to file any campaign finance reports. Violations of this code section are punishable by fine established by the State Board of Elections, which vary.
The website is hosted on bluehost.com, which perhaps coincidentally is also the website hosting company that is servicing a few other anonymously registered websites that I’ve taken an interest in of late. I’ve contacted the company, advising them that if they don’t provide the name of their client, they would risk being considered complicit in the violation of civil and criminal laws in Virginia. I’m pretty sure they’ll provide the information, especially since this behavior is a violation of the terms of service that bluehost.com establishes with their clients. Besides that, web hosting companies aren’t that fond of getting dragged into legal actions because of their customers.
I’m really interested to see who is so casual with the law here, and seeks to unlawfully influence the outcome of elections in Prince William County. It’s probably someone who spouts off on a regular basis about respecting the will of the people and defending democracy. And then anonymously subvert our elections. Soon this all goes over to the Commonwealth Attorney’s office, but it helps their investigation when you can provide all the information they’d ever need to prosecute a crime.
Here’s a piece of advice to the criminal behind this effort: It might be a better idea to contact the State Board of Elections and find a way to make amends before I finish running this down. Folks who admit they violated the law tend to be treated better than those who had to be dragged to justice. And being dragged to justice is exactly what is going to happen here, if that’s required.
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11 Comments
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I certainly wish you all the luck and I think its important to expose these type of things, but the state board of elections has NO enforcement mechanism for someone who never registered as a PAC. The county commonwealth’s attorney is in charge of any criminal violations of election law. Good luck at getting any CA to look into something like this right now.
As for finding out about a blog or website creator, its difficult to impossible if organizer did it right knowing people would look around. The only reason this webhost would have to give up the author of the website would be if a court document forced them and if the host is out of state, it really complicates things for a supposed misdeameanor case.
Good luck and keep up the excellent work exposing these people going after good elected officials like Stirrup.
One, Virginia Code specifies that violations of these laws are to be prosecuted by the Commonwealth’s Attorney. Failure to file a campaign finance report goes initially to the State Board of Elections, which then may refer the matter to the CA if the fine is not paid. The failure to provide a disclosure definitely goes to the CA, and similar cases have been successfully prosecuted in the past.
As far as determining who the website owner is, that’s not a problem in this case at all. I’ve been down this road before, and this one has so far been a lot easier than the last time I did this. The person responsible for this is not at all technically proficient.
Hmm? Thank you for the primer, Greg. I’m going straight to a lawyer tomorrow with the whois data from every website and blog listed on your site. Hadn’t thunk of it before you thunk of it. Thank you, Greg.
Dave, why bother? Who is trying to hide while engaging in unlawful efforts to influence elections in Virginia?
Heck, the vast majority of bloggers listed here are publicly known.
WTF, why isn’t Whackjob listed over there? I demand that Whackjob be added to the blog roll around here, if for no other reason than we class up this place (and your dirty Mexicans that don’t bathe)*
*Before anyone goes bat-shit crazy, read the post from today about that Mexican guy talking about other Mexican guys.
“make amends before I finish running this down”
Threats. Scary! Shake in your boots, whoever you are.
More inane blabber from Krusty the Klown!!
Seems you didn’t take enough Metamucil. Talk about “inane”.
Nice work, Greg. Stick with this one.
LOL to Whackjob’s post; I thought blog roll was one word.
[…] political activism. As the force behind RemoveStirrup.com, which has been engaged in an ongoing violation of Virginia’s election laws by not providing the required disclaimers on the website nor filing required campaign finance […]