Here's Why You Should Want Your Voter Information Public
It's easier to catch voter fraud in states with publicly available voter registration lists
Voters should demand free access to voter registration data from their state legislatures. Making this data public and free of charge provides the surest way to create electoral accountability by making it easier to catch electoral errors and fraud. This openness would strengthen democracy by countering skepticism of election integrity, which often fuels distrust in election outcomes.
"A provision in the National Voter Registration Act [NVRA] states this data is public and should be available for public inspection," Voter Reference Foundation's (VRF) Joseph Benson told Restoration News. "It’s federal law."
VRF provides government electoral data to the public with the goal of increasing voter participation nationwide.
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Benson explained that the organization looks for things like people with weird characters in their names, people over 100 years old, double registrations, and how many people registered at one address. It then runs a discrepancy analysis on the list of people who can vote and the list of who did vote based on state reports of ballots cast.
"When you look at the voter file, there should be the same number who cast a ballot," he said. "The discrepancy analysis sees whether the canvas and the voter file match."
"Those who object to giving out their personal information should remember that all this data is already public," Benson added. "You can look up who owns a property at a tax assessor’s office."
Even hermits no longer enjoy privacy in the internet age. People can find nearly anyone's telephone number and home address by simply googling their name.
"Your info’s already out there," Benson added. "Wouldn't you prefer a nonprofit use that info to make sure your vote’s counted?"
The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) updated NVRA's transparency's provision, requiring states to maintain computerized statewide voter registration lists. But like the NVRA, it gave states considerable leeway in how much access they grant private citizens.
Some make voter registration data available to anyone. These include Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.
Others are more restrictive, making it available only to political parties and government officials. These include Alabama, Arizona, Massachusetts, and North Dakota.
Others, such as Indiana, behave like Soviets in the fees they charge, the restrictions they impose, and their bureaucratic incompetency.
Gold Standard of Accountability
"North Carolina is the gold standard," Benson said. There, anyone can request the list for a fee, and political parties receive it for free. Unlike some states which provide extremely limited information, the Tarheel State gives the voter's name, county voter identification number, residential address, mailing address, sex, race, age, party affiliation, voter history, and the voter's district numbers all the way down to the soil conservation district.
The only restriction the more open states could improve upon is their requirement that people request voter registration data. As Restoration News previously argued, the federal government should revise the NVRA to require states to make their lists available for anyone to view online without a request.
Demanding public access to voter registration data does not mean throwing out all safeguards. Even states with the most liberal voter registration access still exclude the names of those who have outstanding restraining orders or work in sensitive professions like policing. Other individuals can receive exemptions with court orders.
"If you care about election integrity, making this data public removes any question or doubt that there’s impropriety, because having this data available to the public means the public can look at it, or experts can determine that there’s no amount of fraud or abuse," Benson said. "It’s about transparency."
Trust in electoral processes is crucial to public participation in democracy. States should eliminate restrictive barriers and make voter data freely available online. Those with privacy concerns should remember that if they own property, have a driver's license, or are registered to vote, they already gave up their privacy. Public access to this data would allow anyone to scrutinize elections, catch errors, and deter fraud.
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