County Republican Committee Election endorsement mail-out under scrutiny for use of Registrar’s Office return address

A pre-election mail-out from the Warren County Republican Committee (WCRC) urging Warren County voters to cast ballots for committee members it endorsed for the Front Royal Town Council and Mayoral elections, as well as 6th District Congressional candidate Ben Cline, that used the return address of the Warren County Registrar’s Office has come under scrutiny. The Warren County Registrar’s Office is a neutral, non-partisan county office that oversees election processes and integrity with no connection to either county political party committee.

Copies of the mail-out postcard viewed by Royal Examiner staff did not have the registrar’s office name in the return address, nor the committee’s, simply the well-known 15th Street (Suite 800) Health & Human Services Complex address at the location of the former Warren County Middle School.

Information Royal Examiner has is that the Republican Committee had no authorization or known reason to utilize the Registrar’s Office for a return address since it is not located in the Health & Human Services Complex. Attempts to reach County Registrar Carol Tobin for comment on Monday, November 7, the day before the election, were unsuccessful as of publication.

Contacted Monday morning in response to queries to the WCRC about the use of the Registrar’s Office return address, current Committee Chairman Robert Hupman said he had no knowledge of the mailer and would “look into it” and get back to Royal Examiner staff. However, Huppman had not responded by early-evening publication time.

Also contacted for a reaction was County Democratic Committee Chair and Outreach Coordinator Paul Miller. “I won’t guess at what motivated local GOP leaders to put the Registrar’s Office as a return address on their mailer, but I think most people around here are smart enough to know there is no connection between the Warren County Republican Committee and the Registrar’s Office. Under Carol Tobin’s leadership, the Registrar’s Office is professional, non-partisan, and a shining example of untainted ethics during a really confusing and highly contentious period in American politics. Whether or not local GOP leaders thought to mislead or confuse voters, the average citizen of Warren County has more on their minds than partisan trickery,” Miller told Royal Examiner on the eve of a national mid-term election seen as pivotal to the future of the nation from both sides of the political aisle.

Town Councilman Skip Rogers posted on the WC Beer Drinkers & Independent Thinkers website today:

“As we approach election day (finally), I want to refer our community to today’s OP/ED in the Royal Examiner (https://royalexaminer.com/vote-politics-out-of-front-royal/), submitted by Michael Graham.

“Let me say that I have voted Republican every election since 1976. I am a solid Republican. However, I am not a member of the Warren County Republican Committee, which is the focus of Mr. Graham’s Op/Ed and this posting. For at least the last five years, I have been concerned about the flagrant disregard to our Town Charter and its specific language regarding non-partisan elections. It states:

Ҥ 6. C. Candidates for town council and mayor shall be nominated only by petition in the manner prescribed by general law. Candidates for town council and mayor shall not be nominated or identified on the ballot by political party affiliation or in any other manner that would disqualify them for candidacy under any law of the United States or the Commonwealth of Virginia.

“Whether it be Republican or Democrat, it must stop. I call on our community, in particular voters within the town, to make every effort to disregard political party candidates and begin to re-establish non-partisan elections as explicitly defined in our town charter. The reasons for this are highlighted in the Op/Ed. Tomorrow, I ask you to begin this change.

“As your non-partisan, community-focused Councilman, I will make every effort to formally begin this change. Help me by voting for non-partisan candidates. Thank you,” Rogers concluded.

Royal Examiner also reached out to the Virginia Department of Elections regarding the highly irregular use of the county registrar’s office address in a GOP mailer. Virginia Department of Elections External Affairs Manager Andrea Gaines wrote in a late-afternoon email that “Title 24.2-Elections of the Code of Virginia does not address return addresses on political advertisements.”

So, while not a violation of existing Virginia Election Codes, one is left to wonder why a partisan political committee would choose to use a return address other than its own on a pre-election mail-out, particularly the address of the local voter registrar’s office.

Vote politics out of Front Royal