Courtesy of Vox:They exposed peoples addresses and email addresses, I'm sure so these folks could be harassed/intimidate others 😡— Jeremy M (@thismyshow) July 14, 2017
The White House just responded to concerns it would release voters’ sensitive personal information by releasing a bunch of voters’ sensitive personal information.
Last month, the White House’s “election integrity” commission sent out requests to every state asking for all voters’ names, party IDs, addresses, and even the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, among other information. The White House then said this information would be made available to the public.
A lot of people did not like the idea, fearing that their personal information could be made public. So some sent emails to the White House, demanding that it rescind the request.
This week, the White House decided to make those emails from concerned citizens public through the commission's new website. But the administration made a big mistake: It didn’t censor any of the personal information — such as names, email addresses, actual addresses, and phone numbers — included in those emails.
In effect, the White House just released the sensitive personal information of a lot of concerned citizens giving feedback to their government. That’s made even worse by the fact that the White House did this when the thing citizens were complaining about was the possibility that their private information would be made public.
In response to outrage over this a spokesperson for Mike Pence said this:
“These are public comments, similar to individuals appearing before commission to make comments and providing name before making comments,” Marc Lotter, press secretary to the vice president, said. “The Commission’s Federal Register notice asking for public comments and its website make clear that information ‘including names and contact information’ sent to this email address may be released.”
Seriously it is like we are living inside a parody of American politics these days.
But that does NOT mean that anybody should unregister in response. And here is a video explaining why that is a dumb idea.
Our forefathers, and yes foremothers, fought too long and hard for our right to vote for us to just give it up in response to this trollish bullshit.If you cancel your voter registration, Trump wins. Please share this message and tell everyone you know to stay registered. pic.twitter.com/NpI4b7j38g— Jason Kander (@JasonKander) July 14, 2017
in my work i do a lot of FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests related to permits issued by local, state, and federal govts. Part of that information are public comments related to a particular permit and they are available and folks have to put their address on the comments in order for them to be considered valid -- and valid comments under most regulations (not all) have to be responded to in a formal govt document called "Response to Public Comment".
ReplyDeletewhat i am getting at is that the public comment aspect of govt regulation and permitting is extremely important and yes your address is there.
some regulations require individual public notice (a letter in the mail)to neighbors to a proposed project -- so there is a list of addresses that you need to see to make sure all of the right people received proper notice otherwise the applicant has to redo the process.
now most of the time this type of information is buried in 100's of pages of other documents so not glaringly out there for folks to scoop up for nefarious reasons.
this particular instance -- folks sending in comments outside of an official public comment period -- is more like making public the "suggestion box" at work. There is absolutely no reason to publicize names or addresses. they should be redacted with a black marker.
This is different.
DeleteThis is putting up on the internet, exposing them to every whackjob troll and Deplorable nutcase.
Most of the crazies don't file for freedom of information act stuff.
actually many states have online search databases that contain the types of public comments i referred to above - again buried in other documents.
DeleteIMHO there are times when some personal information should remain intact -- and i agree the crazies are a reason why this particular circumstance should have been dealt with using more brains and care for the participants in the public comment process.
This was criminal. This was voter intimidation and more. The lies and gull of trump and his insults from are evil. Directing thugs to bully innocent Americans is OUTRAGEOUS!!! Never have we witnessed a public paid servant so dangerously EVIL intimidating and threatening to Americans and America. 100% of Americans must stand up speak up and demand that this man resign immediately whether investigations are complete or not. He has made clear that he does not represent America. He has made clear that he is a dangerous bully and liar. He has made clear that he did not win the election. He stole it. He is attempting to trash America to pay his personal debt. Enough.
ReplyDeleteThere's also a lot of paranoid people, of which I am not one. Let these bastards come after me; they'll be sorry they did!
DeleteI am sure that publishing the personal contact information of commenters was done deliberately. No one in the Trump administration respects the voices of the American people.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Or our rights!
Delete36% but it's all fake news, right, donnie?
ReplyDeletehttp://abcnews.go.com/Politics/months-record-low-trump-troubles-russia-health-care/story?id=48639490
I would put it at 26% of paid unregistered voters and poll riggers did this fake poll. NO reasonable, decent American would vote for trump or approve of his criminal behavior and deception tactics.
DeleteHe rigs the polls too. Unregistered voters and fake fraud poll riggers don't count.
Mistake my as. Thankfully my governor was one of the first to tell the committee to go fuck itself.
ReplyDeleteThey're releasing the personal data of anyone that makes public comment.
DeleteThat's intimidation.
The government may need the info to confirm the comments are legit but they don't need to release it all to the public. The public of the WORLD.
They're just trying to shut people up under threat of exposing their info the hackers and whackos.
I live in a country where voter registration is automatic. You register your place of residence, or the fact that you are homeless, and several weeks before an election a card drops on your doormat which gives you the right to vote - if you bring along your ID (passport or driver's license). I find it hard to digest the idea that you do not have the right to vote if you don't register.
ReplyDeleteits more of a right to vote in state and local elections. national elections are also administered on the state level. you register to vote in the state that you reside so that the state knows you are there.
Deletethat's all i got though - we all have the right to vote just the registration process to create voter rolls is used to put more time effort and fuss between the citizen and the voting booth.
but remember, local elections should be decided by those who live in specific precincts and the only way to make sure is to have registration.
does your country not have local elections?
Trump's plan was always to get Democratic voters off of the rolls. If you take yourself off he will make sure you can't get back on. Remember, he has no qualms about doing anything illegal, so you can't rest on the law... while you're busy taking him to court he has already "won" the next election... and for all we know there will be 2 more vacancies on the SCOTUS by then... so it's even possible that the Republicans will make a third terms possible again.
ReplyDeleteRemember, there is no evil that these amoral individuals won't resort to, no depth they won't sink to. They have no soul.
This is an intimidation strategy.
ReplyDeleteThey want you to know if you contact them to disagree with anything, they will put all of your information out there and turn a blind eye.
It's that old "will now one rid me of this meddlesome priest" strategy Donald is so enamored of.
They can simply have their rabid Deplorables do their dirty work for them. They just give them all of the details to hunt you down.
It's intimidation, plain and simple.
Then they can say they didn't get much of a negative response so everyone must LUUUUUUV what they're doing.
Yes, it's all fucking bullshit.
They're going to make it hard for you to register.
ReplyDeleteThey're going to make it hard for you to stay registered.
They're going to make it hard for you to vote.
They are going to make it very unpleasant to defy or express displeasure in the government in any way.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kris-kobach-nvra_us_59698037e4b017418627ac98?section=us_politics
"Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), the official leading President Donald Trump’s voter fraud probe, apparently sought to amend federal voting law to make it possible to require proof of citizenship during the voter registration process, according to an email made public Friday as part of an ongoing lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union.
The email offers the firmest evidence yet that Kobach was interested in amending the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, as has been speculated. The NVRA ― a law championed by voting advocates ― requires motor vehicle, public assistance and some other state agencies to provide voter registration opportunities, and outlines the procedure by which voters can be removed from the rolls."
"On June 28 of this year, the same day Kobach sent a letter to all 50 states requesting publicly available voter data, the Department of Justice sent a letter to the 44 states covered by the NVRA, asking them to detail their compliance with the voter-purging procedures outlined in the law. Voting advocates said the DOJ letter was deeply alarming, with some interpreting it as a signal that the department is gearing up to sue states to kick people off the voting rolls.
The November email is the first piece of evidence of Kobach’s intent to amend the NVRA ― something that critics have suspected since Kobach was photographed last November holding documents that listed potential alterations to the law. Kobach initially refused to turn over those documents to the ACLU in the lawsuit over Kansas’ proof-of-citizenship law, only doing so once a judge forced him to. The judge also sanctioned him with a $1,000 fine for making “patently misleading representations” about the documents to the court.
Kobach marked the documents as confidential, but the ACLU filed a motion in court Friday to have them unsealed.
Kobach, who was an immigration policy adviser during Trump’s White House transition, has been the focus of national attention as the work of the voter fraud panel begins. Election officials in nearly every state have either refused or said they cannot fully comply with Kobach’s request for publicly available voter data.
The panel’s first meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 19. "
Hey, Trump: the only voter-information of MINE that you need to know is I DIDN'T VOTE FOR YOU, ASSHOLE!
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to unregister and easy to register again if one chooses to.
ReplyDelete