Sound Politics: Voter information as public information

February 11, 2006

Voter information as public information

Assistant Secretary of State Steve Excell e-mailed to put the privacy concerns that Dave Ross raised about the voter database into proper context:
---
Dave obviously does not know that most information in the Voter Registration Database had been a public record for as long as our entire lifetimes. That is how the political parties and the candidates target direct mail only to voting households. Some candidates do the list work themselves and others use mail houses.

Prior to this year, the Driver’s License Number, last four digits of the SSN, birth date and signature were confidential. As of January 01, 2006, the birth date is public information. Last session, the Legislature made this change for two reasons: (1) the birth date is already public information at the Department of Health; and (2) the birth date helps prevent “false-positive” matches when reviewing or challenging the validity of voter registrations.

The public information on our VRDB is also available elsewhere:

(1) Nationwide SSN Master Death Index Search. Ancestry.com subscription site. Kept up to date weekly. Affordable.
http://www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3693

(2) A free version of the Nationwide SSN Master Death Index Search. Maintained less frequently.
http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/

(3) “Obtaining Birthdays in One Step. Free.
http://stevemorse.org/birthday/birthday2.html

(4) Birth date, age and address history. Free. Phone numbers and other data for a small fee. One time fees and subscriptions available.
http://www.zabasearch.com/

(5) Find name variations, age, city, state and possible relatives. Free. Pay for phone number.
http://www.privateeye.com/Summary.asp

For a price, one can buy extensive database extracts from these and other sources.

Historically, a person’s name, address, birth, marriage, divorce, land registrations, and death have generally been public information under the English common law both in most of Western Europe and the USA.

Newspapers used to publish this information in great detail. Some still do. The Vancouver Columbian is one newspaper that reports all of the above. I know this from my genealogy research. Some of the Seattle news papers publish this vital statistical data intermittently.

By the way, our office sold the old VRDB for $30 a CD-ROM. So the release of the new VRDB extract is nothing new nor a change in our procedures.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 11, 2006 05:45 PM | Email This

Comments

1. Don't Have too high of an expectation for Dave Ross. His sense of morality is guided only by his Left Wing Democratic Ideology. He will NEVER admit he was wrong about the Voter Information OR that Stefan has uncovered any evidence of wrong doing at KCE or with Ron Sims. He is simply genetically incapable of admiting that his party, the party that has had a stranglehold on local politics for the last 20 years is corrupt and ignoring the law.

Posted by: Roscoe on February 11, 2006 07:00 PM

2. Good point! Some things aren't absolutely private, and shouldn't be for the greater good. People worry about identity theft, and rightly so. But there are others who would use the cover of absolute "privacy" to commit sneaky crimes, like voter fraud. There has to be a balance.

For instance, if you use a public library computer to commit or arrange a crime, don't expect privacy. It's a public computer. Don't use the one at work either -- your employer can watch what you do.

Also, if you fly on a plane, you can expect to be searched and have forbidden items confiscated (you could even be arrested based on the search) -- all without a warrant!

Posted by: starboardhelm on February 11, 2006 07:03 PM

3. You're right about the legality of this, but it does fall under the commonly-expressed concern that ease of access/manipulation furnished by having the entire database in computer form poses risks that were entirely absent back in the bad old days when you had to personally visit public records and get a photocopy of the record(s).

Just sayin', is all...

Posted by: Kirk Parker on February 11, 2006 08:06 PM

4. Ok so why didn't my vote against sims ballot not get to me till the third attempt HMMMMMM! Now I know why!

Posted by: dcat on February 11, 2006 08:24 PM

5. Please remember folks that the Democrats in Washington have a far, far superior database to the Republicans. They have virtually pre-polled the entire State....precindt by precindt....and move Heaven & Earth to get their base out. They have the ground troops. The Republicans, for the most part, are lazy and built their pathetic database hiring outside phone-polling firms to build their lists. The Republican lists are pathetic.
What would you rather have to work? A refined list that includes door-to-door validation.....or a list developed primarily by phone calls? I have worked Republican State lists. They are ridiculous and frustrating. I won't do it anymore.
The Democrats do not want voter information to become more accessible because they already have the data they need. They are successful, in part, because the Republicans are unfocused and lazy.
Republicans will take back Washington when they start going door-to-door and vastly improve the database.....then follow through call their base and making sure they all vote! It's not that complicated...it just takes organization and ground troops. Too much to ask. Until the Republicans improve their Statewide database, get ground troops and follow-thru as aggressively as the Democrats... they will be losers.

Posted by: Mr. Cynical on February 12, 2006 09:26 AM

6. I tried my name on privateeye.com to see what comes out, and I am just blown away by it. It knows where I had been once in my life, and listed all my family as possibly related to me. And, they complain about privacy releasing birthday in the voter database??? Geesh, give it a rest.

Posted by: C. Oh on February 12, 2006 10:01 AM

7. There is not a thing out there that is private unless you have never said it or wrote it down...

Posted by: Roger Kint on February 12, 2006 10:12 AM

8. Perhaps with the talent here at SP the most convincing evidence for the Myopic Lefty Mr. Ross is to do a little research on him? Just use publicly available data, not related to the Voter Database. Since he is a former candidate for Congress I am sure there are a few "nuggets" of information out in the record.

To be honest, I am sure that Mr. Ross realizes the inanity of his position about Stefan and Voter Database, but as in every other topic he covers, he has to spin it as Lefty progressive good, anybody who threatens the "order" bad.

Posted by: Roscoe on February 12, 2006 10:48 AM

9. Mr. Cynical: >> you are leaving out the most important part -- the demo base consists largely of recent imigrants/unemployed/welfare/unionists/inherited money/'students'/university faculty/perpetual students living off their trust funds etc etc -- basically a large pool of people that can take the time to do the footwork -- all the repub types I have ever known are too busy working and paying the taxes and interest that supports the parasitic democrap base

Posted by: Bill on February 12, 2006 09:57 PM

10. After mulling over the situation, I have to agree with Dave Ross for a minute. I am shocked I can get salaries about State employees over the internet. I am shocked when City employee salaries are advertised in our local paper. I am shocked at all the information I can get about a person.

People I know are shocked that I can see their marriage records, liens, divorces, etc. on the County web page under document search. All that is shocking to me.

But, I didn't like Ross picking on Sharkansky like he did when there were a lot of other targets out there, too. And someone intimated that Goldstein was the first caller Ross put on after Stefan talked, as if the two of them were point-counterpoint.

One last thing, when I asked for voter rolls when I was sending out campaign literature or when I do other FOIA request, I have to promise that I am not using the infor for commercial purposes. Is there something magic with that use?

Also, when Stefan posted in a legitimate purpose, couldn't some commercial operation use those addresses for their commercial use and circumvent their own request?

Posted by: swatter on February 14, 2006 09:11 AM