The campaign office of Congressman Tom Perriello, D-Charlottesville, was broken into the morning of Election Day, said Jessica Barba, communications director for the Perriello campaign.
Door hangers labeled with local polling locations had been stolen and passed out to the wrong houses, Barba said. The signs, which guided voters to polling locations for the Brownville precinct, were placed on doors for the Venable precinct, which is heavily populated with University students. A "Hurt for U.S. Congress" sign also was placed outside the Perriello office. No other damage was reported.
Perriello staff members discovered the wrongly placed signs while canvassing the neighborhood Tuesday and went door-to-door collecting the misplaced signs.
Police officials arrived at Perriello's office shortly before noon and said they suspected the perpetrator came into the office through a window.
"It's a ground floor office, so you can kind of walk up to the window," Barba said. "There was a screen that was bent back so someone could reach in."
Perriello staffers arrived Tuesday morning at about 5 a.m. and later determined that the break-in happened sometime between 2:30 and 5 a.m. No other such incidents have taken place during the course of the race for Fifth District congressional seat, which state Sen. Robert Hurt won Tuesday, earning 51 percent of the vote.\nThe student-populated Venable precinct leans heavily Democratic, said Barba, who suggested that the signs were handed out in this area to confuse Democratic voters.\n"I think it was certainly an unfortunate incident. It probably confused some people, but I don't know if it was a very significant effect," Barba said. "Everyone knows it was a student precinct. It was probably targeted toward suppressing the student vote."
Albemarle Police Lt. Shawn Schwertfeger said the perpetrator stole "campaign materials" but declined to say whether police thought the perpetrator was attempting to suppress the student vote.
Neither Perriello's staff nor the police have identified a suspect, but an investigation is ongoing.
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