Voter registration group says GOP accusation is based on garbage.

Last night, the Pennsylvania Republican state committee sent reporters a release about a voter registration group in Philadelphia that “shredded and threw away numerous registration forms,” inlcuding a number “for people trying to register as a Republican.”

The release linked to this article by Mike Flynn writing for the conservative website Breitbart (named for the late Andrew Breitbart, who found fame with the Shirly Sherrod video).

The article says that a citizen journalist found evidence in the trash of a group called the Community Voters Project that they were shredding voter registration applications collected for people who wanted to be Republicans.

The article doesn’t say who the citizen journalist was, where in Philadelphia he found the shredded documents or when he happened upon them. The deadline for voter registration in Pennsylvania was October 9th, so it’s a little curious the piece was published the day before the Nov. 6th election.

There’s also no indication in the article that Flynn contacted the Community Voter Project for comment, but I did.

They weren’t hard to find. Spokesman Brad Martin called back and said unequivocally that “Flynn’s story and accusations are false.”

Martin said the group focuses on registering African-American and Hispanic voters, and scrupulously turns in all applications, regardless of party affiliation. He said they make photocopies of the applications they turn in, and when they had some problems with their copier, they shredded and discarded some substandard copies.

“It appears someone dug through our garbage and found shredded photocopies, plain and simple,” Martin said. He that if the citizen reporter had found legitimate voter registration forms shredded, the ink would be blue.

“What you’re looking at is copies,” he said.