Can you vote?

Great link/site, @jcs007!

Thanks for sharing that website URL with us.

I find it disconcerting that someone else could find out my voter registration status, by obtaining and entering information about me, there.

It’s very disturbing to now know that.

Not in the U.S.

I checked that site last week and panicked when it said they couldn’t find my information. I called the Durham County Board of Elections, freaking out, and it turns out I am registered.

So, it appears that site is not very accurate.

Whew.

@JackAdams: Voting records (not who you voted for, but if you can and if you did) appear to be considered public information. I remember serving as a poll worker in California—we kept a list hung on the door outside the polling place of all the people registered to vote at our precinct, and furthermore we took the list every hour or so and crossed off all the names of people who had voted during that hour. I’m not sure what the rationale is, but I think these records are designed to be public.

I can vote, and I plan to.

Hm. That site doesn’t find any information on me. But I recently checked to make sure I was registered where I needed to be registered since I moved across the country twice in the space of two months and wanted to double-check to make sure I didn’t need to do anything special to vote. So, like girlofscience said, not a terribly accurate site.

Up until the 1980s, voter registration records in the state of Hawaii were considered public information, and anyone, at any time, could go down to the state capitol building in Honolulu, walk into the Lt. Governor’s reception area, and without asking permission at all, saunter over to the filing cabinets in that reception area, pull out an alphabetically-labeled book, sit down at a desk provided for the public, and casually thumb through those volumes, finding out whatever you wished to know about any particular voter.

Here is what was revealed in those books (at that time), about every voter:

The voter’s full, legal name
The voter’s BIRTHDATE
The voter’s street (physical) address
The voter’s SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER

Actor’s Jim Nabors and Tom Selleck both lived in that state at that time, and so did I.

One day, I was doing some invesitgation on voter fraud there (in my capacity as an attorney there, and as a news reporter for a radio station) and when I saw just how much personal information was publicly available on voters (as noted above), I contacted those two actors and each received a letter which began:

“Hi! I happen to know that your Social Security Number is XXX-XX-XXXX, and here is how I found that out…”

I then explained what was available for public scrutiny by anyone with a pair of properly-functioning eyes (and an ability to comprehend English).

I also sent a similarly-worded letter to several Law Enforcement Officials that asked, “Do you want your ENEMIES to know your street address and your SSN?”

Within a matter of a few short weeks, those records were no longer publicly accessible, and to this day, because of my actions, the only way you can access those records, is if you are formally challenging another person’s right to vote.

I still have the SSNs for those actors, written down in one of my private ledgers, to prove that what I am saying is indeed factual.

No such records in any state should be accessible by anyone, except the individual voter, and because they still are (in many states), explains why most law enforcement officers (and their families) are not registered voters, and never will be.

To further illustrate just how dangerous voter registration records can be, please note the case of Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Ken Gager

Using publicly-accessible voter registration records, Trooper Gager was sent a mail bomb to his residence, by someone he had once arrested, and to quote verbatim from the NYT article:

Trooper Gager, 43, lost his left eye and part of his left arm when the package, which contained dynamite, nails and fence-post staples, exploded in his hands on Sept. 8, 1993. Trooper Gager said he thought the package was a birthday gift from his children.

The injured trooper is still employed by the Nevada Highway Patrol as a fully-sworn officer with all lawful powers and abilities, but is restricted to a “desk job.”

It said I could vote but it asked me to wear pants this time.

I’ve been looking up people whose birthdays I know, and I think it’s kind of invasive that you can see which party the people are registered with.

Not only are registration records public in California, they know how often you vote and if you vote in person or absentee. Working a phone bank can really open your eyes. They can not only access voting records, they can cross-match them with other computer files so they can come up with a list of likely voters who are union members. That way when they are trying to get support for an issue they can talk union member to union member. Any other list you are on can be bought for finding who might support which issue.

Of course if you vote every time you are going to get the most calls because they not only are going to try and get your support for a candidate or an issue, the opinion poll takers look on you as a better source than the occasional voter.

Shit. It says that I’m not registered!

Holy fuck! I’m on there.

cool