[DW] Site - US "Who Voted" Website Provides Public Access to Voter Lists
From:
Naoum Liotas
Date:
Nov 13 13:51 UTC
Short link
Hi to everyone...
I agree with James! I was shocked to find that not only did I have access to
voter records, but I could analytically see when someone voted and when he did
not!!! Moreover, the party that some of the voters belong to is registered.
This brings up a more philosophical question. Is there some things that should
be kept private? Do citizens have a right to keep their privacy? Does anyone
ask them if they want everyone to know if and when they voted? Will they be the
future target market of representatives?
I am really not sure as to the motives behind "giving public access to election
records" as that surely does not guarantee a "by the book" election process...
Cheers,
Naoum Liotas.
--- ., 13/11/08, / James Gilmour <jgilmour@globalnet.co.uk> :
: James Gilmour <jgilmour@globalnet.co.uk>
: Re: [DO Europe] [DW] Site - US "Who Voted" Website Provides Public Access to
Voter Lists
: <email obscured>, <email obscured>
: , 13 2008, 1:17
Steven Clift > Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 3:32 PM via NEWSWIRE
> See:
> http://whovoted.net
Why should any of this information be in the public domain?
What aspect of "the public interest" is being served by allowing me
to see whether you voted?
There MAY be a public interest element to allowing a non-voter to discover that
s/he is recorded as having voted, but what could
they then do? The incorrect record may indicate a genuine mistake or it may
indicate personation. But what to do in either case?
There is no significant public interest element in allowing a voter to see that
s/he has been recorded as having voted, because that
does not mean that their vote has been counted or has been counted for the
candidate they wished. Those verifications would require
a very different procedure.
Information about your membership or non-membership of a political party should
not be in the public domain - for ordinary electors,
it should be a wholly private matter.
State and federal authorities and state and federal laws should have no place
in the internal elections of political parties to
choose their candidates for public elections. Such elections should be private
matters for the members of the parties concerned.
The role of state or federal law in such private matters should be limited to
providing the back-stop of "natural justice" for the
members of a political party that fails to comply with its own internal
electoral regulations or which adopts regulations that do
not comply with the accepted rules of "natural justice".
James Gilmour
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