Secretary of State Steve Simon has 10 days to hand over voter information, a judge has ruled
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon has 10 days to provide voter information to the Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA), a Ramsey County judge ruled Friday in the year-old dispute over access to the state’s voter rolls.
Simon’s office immediately announced that he would file a motion to put the order on hold pending his appeal. “Secretary Simon will continue to use all available legal tools to protect the private information of Minnesota’s voters,” the statement said.
(snip)
In January 2017, the MVA formally asked Simon for access to an electronic copy of data in the statewide voter registration system, including voter identification number, name, address, phone number, year of birth, voting history, type of ballot (absentee or in person), voter status (active, inactive, deleted, challenger), reason for challenge and all other information.
In August 2017, Simon told the group it was entitled only to the name, address, year of birth, history, district and telephone number. He told the group the information about the type of ballot, status and challenges wasn’t public.
Judge Jennifer Frisch disagreed. In her opinion, she said the information sought by the MVA exists in the computerized statewide voter system that contains 19 separate fields of data on approximately 5.4 million individual voter records.
(snip)
In support of the court’s position, the judge also pointed to two advisory opinions previously issued by the state’s Information Policy Analysis Division. An opinion from 2012 confirmed that data on voter status is “presumptively public.”
In a news release, the MVA asserted that “tens of thousands of voters may have voted ineligibly in 2016.” However, there has been no evidence that occurred.
Frisch’s ruling focused on access to voter information, not the plausibility of the fraud claims.
http://www.startribune.com/secretary-of-state-steve-simon-has-10-days-to-hand-over-voter-information-a-judge-has-ruled/488130391/
=====
What a perfect way for dissuading voters from voting. I really don't think that all this information about me should be "presumpitvely public." Is Judge Frisch an elected official? I hope that someone will run against her