The Democratic National Committee said the move to hand over the voter roll could violate federal election law.

Texas officials have turned over the state’s voter roll to the U.S. Justice Department, according to a spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, complying with the Trump administration’s demands for access to data on millions of voters across the country.

The Justice Department last fall began asking all 50 states for their voter rolls — massive lists containing significant identifying information on every registered voter in each state — and other election-related data. The Justice Department has said the effort is central to its mission of enforcing election law requiring states to regularly maintain voter lists by searching for and removing ineligible voters.

Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, told Votebeat and The Texas Tribune that the state had sent its voter roll, which includes information on the approximately 18.4 million voters registered in Texas, to the Justice Department on Dec. 23.

  • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
    12·
    5 months ago

    Experts and state officials around the country have raised concerns over the legality of the Justice Department’s effort to obtain states’ voter rolls and whether it could compromise voter privacy protections.

    I always thought these were public record. TIL, I guess.

      • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        5·
        5 months ago

        Yep. Its kinda fucked how many states just… have this information on the open internet. I can just google my address (just street and number, no city info) and get a crapload of information.

        VoterRecords.com

      • jonathan7luke@lemmy.zip
        1·
        5 months ago

        They were not

        Where are you getting that from? As I mentioned in another reply, you’ve been able to request voter records for years now, and they already include basically all the information the article is talking about: https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/forms/pi.pdf. There are several websites that submit these requests and then publish the results online for free. My voting history (including name, address, age, etc.) has been up on these sites for years. I do not like that at all, but I have no control over it. I’m not really sure what is different about what was handed over from Texas to the federal government…

      • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
        3·
        5 months ago

        That’s not exactly sensitive info. Property records are very public with that same info.

          • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
            3·
            5 months ago

            Yes totally not sensitive at all. Not like you live in the address provided and this administration has a bone to pick with those that don’t register as the GOP.

            The current situation doesn’t retroactively somehow make these records sensitive.

            Also property records are not “very public.” Yes you are able to request the information, but there is anything suspicious about the request the records holder can and should block said request.

            Not in my (most?) states. Property records are readily accessible online for the states I’ve had to look up. I can pull up a property on a map and find full history of sales, purchases, owners, permits, renovations, and more. Also why it’s used often in OSINT.

              • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
                2·
                5 months ago

                Indeed you can, and said look ups only give you partial information, and even then a suspicious lookup and you get blocked out. With VPNs and non-US IPs blocked by default.

                You made multiple claims about how it’s not “very public” and somehow that the property owner can somehow block requests which is just nonsense. And now you’ve changed to arguing that it’s public but somehow restricted by location or whatever. Or maybe you’ve run into scraping protections before and somehow you think that supports your idea that this information is not public. At best maybe you’re referencing a state that has these protections, but it’s absolutely not commonplace. I think you’re just full of shit, though.

                And even then you are needing to go to multiple sites to get a profile. The Voting Rolls however is a complete profile, thus they are not made to be public

                What?

                  • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
                    1·
                    5 months ago

                    I didn’t Change though, being able to make a records request doesn’t mean therefore the information is Public, particularly at the level you imply (a simple ass Google search.).

                    It’s public. Live. With GIS data maps of property boundaries. Available to anyone at any time. I can give you actual links or you could just do some simple ass Google searches as you said. Quit making shit up.

                    “Sorry stranger we have no knowledge who you are and the IP address your email request appears to be from Ukraine. Your request is denied to protect the property owners from being victims.”

                    haha

                    The local county department that tracks property only knows the property and who gets taxed for owning said property.

                    Also completely and entirely false.

                    Meanwhile the voting rolls has ones Legal Name, Address they live in, Social Security Number.

                    Also false. I doubt you’ve even registered to vote anywhere in this country.

                    Keep replying with more completely made up bullshit.

          • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.todayEnglish
            2·
            5 months ago

            Property records in most states and counties have a web portal with a search bar. You input the address and you can get the name of who lives there. The opposite is true in some places as well, you input the name and get the address. It’s not good, don’t get me wrong, but it is “very public” in most places.

            Luckily, my state doesn’t have you register your political affiliation. That’s what is most worrying about Texas doing this, since they do have you pick a primary. Otherwise, it is basically just public records.

    • UnspecificGravity@piefed.socialEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      Many states (including Texas) require voters to register as a member of a political party. Texas just handed the Feds a list of all the voting Democrats in Texas.