Voter information dumped on side of Fla. highway

[sabra]

Source: USA Today

Highway workers found voter information scattered on the side of Interstate 4 this morning in Tampa, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

The documents, which filled nine garbage bags, "carried an alphabetical listing of Tampa residents, their party affiliations, age, sex, home address, and sometimes phone numbers," the paper says. "Each entry includes a check boxes to mark whether each person supports John McCain or Barack Obama, whether they voted and whether they need a ride to the polls on Election Day."

Local election officials say the documents are based on public information. "They're not our papers," Mia McCormick, a spokeswoman for the county elections office, tells The Tampa Tribune. "Sometimes candidates request this information for campaign surveys. But we don't know whose they are."

Officials say the documents will probably be destroyed.


Read more: http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/11/voter-informati.html

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http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/nov/03/031139/hillsborough-voter-records-found-scattered-along-i/news-politics/



Photo from Bryan Farrow

The documents found today on I-4 appear to be survey results but remain unclaimed. The elections office says the information in the documents is public record.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. That's nice...real nice...

x(

[MineralMan]

10. Trashing the Place

This sounds like a neighbor about a block away from my house. Couldn't pay the rent and got evicted. Couldn't afford a Uhaul. So he loaded up his car, several times, then drove a couple of blocks and dumped everything beside the road. Trash, broken furniture...the lot.

Unfortunately, he also dumped several plastic bags full of unpaid bills and other garbage. Last I saw was him getting into the back of a Police Car.

High-tailing it out of town, leaving the garbage behind. So typical of losers...

[Ian David]

2. I'm gonna GUESS

Either:

1) Frustrated McCain supporter who just gave-up.
2) Paid temp forced into working for McCain had a "fuck it!" moment.
3) Someone infiltrated the Obama campaign and dumped all their canvassing data.
4) Some idiot forgot that things in the back of a pick-up truck can get blown by high winds.

[BayjanDem]

12. I'M GONNA GO WITH 1 & 4

The fact that it happened on I4 is not a surprise.

[demo dutch]

3. So... did someone though it was a lost cause or just lost it or what???

[Xenotime]

4. Sounds like a GOP coverup

[JJ]

5. Now we know which route Jeb took...

on his way the hell out of Florida.

[whopis01]

14. That road will never get you out of Florida - just back and forth across it. n/t

[JJ]

17. Never said he was smart

[Dr.Phool]

27. So this is the Voter Information Superhighway?

More like dial-up. I-4 is always jammed and slow.

[YDogg]

6. someone was too lazy to shred

[izzybeans]

7. Sounds like GOTV material from a campaign.

someone packed up, went home and then dumped the garbage.

[yardwork]

8. Didn't McCain's campaign recently announce that employees would not be paid?

[GinaMaria]

11. WTF?

How can he not pay employees? Did he run out of money? He used a lot of temp agencies didn't he? There are usually signed contracts with these agencies.... this isn't going well for McLoser is it?

[yardwork]

13. Yeah. I wasn't clear on the details, but people are being asked to cover their own expenses.

Basically, it sounded like a lot of his temporary employees were being converted to volunteers without their permission. People were told that their per diem expenses would no longer be covered by the campaign. Etc. Sounds like they're out of money.

What's interesting is that many of those positions are actually held by volunteers in Obama's campaign. People are happy to give of their time and money to Obama. People have to be paid to campaign for McCain.

[YDogg]

22. I heard basically the same, that they have abandoned their FL GOTV efforts ...

... and are pouring everything into advertising.

[Grinchie]

9. Gosh darn that anonymous belching of Voter Information into the cloud.

"Sometimes candidates request this information for campaign surveys. But we don't know whose they are."

The truth is, it could be either campaign, and without some sort of identifier on the documents that can be traced back to someone signing out the data, it would be hard to trace it to either.

Sometimes I am amazed at the complete lack of control on our information, as it does not make me feel any safer.

[indigo32]

16. exactly -NT

[ddeclue]

15. It's in bad taste but this sounds like the McCain campaign takin' out the trash to me..

In Florida you can order the entire state on DVD-ROM for about $15. It's all public record and some counties even make their county available for down load for free from the internet.

Ohio, and North Carolina offer their entire state-wide voter records available for free download from the SOS websites.

Florida, Pennsylvania and Nevada charge a very nominal fee for this (essentially media + shipping).

Georgia makes voter histories available for free on the internet but getting the ID to name lookup costs $500 or more.

New Jersey only makes the list available on paper for 25 cents per page - not very useful for a computer driven campaign.

Other states charge various rates depending on their laws or don't make the voter rolls available at all.


Doug D.
Voter File Guru
Orlando, FL

[GinaMaria]

19. So much for privacy and casting a secret ballot

This had info on who they were voting for? Is that from a survey they conducted?

[ddeclue]

20. They don't know who you voted for by looking at your ballot

This is the result of somebody's phone banking effort - they called a bunch of voters and ASKED them how the voted.

[GinaMaria]

21. Got it. but still a violation of privacy no?

Your name and phone number with the name of the person you intend to vote for or have voted for. This seems nuts doesn't it? I've been in health care my whole career so maybe I'm more sensitive to protecting people's privacy, information and properly destroying documents.

[ddeclue]

23. No laws against it in Florida that I know of..

Voter file is public record. If you told them who you voted for you did that voluntarily as weeeIf they got your phone they likely got that from a public source or you volunteered it.

Health Care records are MUCH more protected because of the HIPPA laws

[GinaMaria]

29. yes we are ruled by HIPAA, but those laws make sense

they are the right thing to do. Seems odd that there would not be some sort of protection about people's names, phone numbers or addresses etc. there's lots of identity info there. All the more reason not to respond to these surveyors when they call. Your info could be floating in the wind.....

[VespertineIconoclast]

18. Bugs Bunny had it right...

[Overseas]

24. K&R for voter suppression file.

Some GOP aka Republican operatives get people to register, file the Republican ones and pitch the Democratic registrations.

That's another fine example of GOP aka Republican ethics.

[sofa king]

25. Well now there's an unusual way to enter documents into the public record.

[RaleighNCDUer]

26. It should be easy to tell what camp these papers came from.

Two questions - 'support McCain or Obama', and 'need a ride to the polls'.

If the papers have those listed as supporting McCain also checking a need for a ride, then the canvassers were republicans. There is no way they would offer Democrats a ride to the polls.

(the same may hold true for Democrats - but I've known plenty of Dems who would give Republicans a lift if asked. We're just nice that way. :) )

[GetTheRightVote]

28. I 4 is always getting blame for so many incidents, come on it is only a highway

It is the person who dumped the papers who is to blame ??

:sarcasm:

[Bippity Boo]

30. Nine Bags of Voter docs found discarded on Tampa, Florida highway

Source: MyFoxTampaBay.com

TAMPA - <...> Thousands of pages of voter information were found lying along the shoulder of Interstate 4 this morning. The papers, all with information about Hillsborough County voters, have been cleaned up and taken to a Department of Transportation maintenance facility for now, but voting officials still don't know where they came from. Transportation workers spotted the nine bags of documents on their traffic cameras along a ramp off I-4 and I-275.

The Hillsborough County supervisor of elections says it did not come from his office, but looks like it may have come from a campaign office or a grassroots effort which drives voters to polling paces. The documents contain names, addresses, phone numbers, and party affiliation, and if the voter needs a ride.

Transportation officials have called the Florida Division of Elections to see if the state office wants to investigate, and are waiting back for a response. If not, the plan is to shred the documents this afternoon.



Read more: http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7779138&version=7&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

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...sigh.

[billyoc]

31. Fucking idiots thought they were votes!

:rofl:

[superconnected]

32. This is awful. A lot of people who thought they registered didn't get registered.

[chalky]

33. Doesn't look like registrations, but a lot of people might be waiting for

a ride to the polls that never arrives.

[NBachers]

34. Bloated, decayed body of Democracy

found floating in Florida backwater.

Jeb Bush called in to manage investigation; puts Joe Scarborough in charge.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n03a7cLf0M

[Dems4me]

35. O.K. WHAT is with Florida?? WHY can't they keep voter information out of the Trash (or off roads) ??

:shrug: :mad:

[harmonicon]

36. can we use "florida" as a verb yet?

like, "way to fucking florida that, asshole."

[Duppers]

37. good point.

me likes.

[Bippity Boo]

38. there's a comedy podcast that has had a weekly feature called "this week in Florida..."

It's called "Uhh Yeah Dude," and it's co-hosted by comic actor John Larroquette's son. The segment focusses on the latest fucked-up news reports out of Florida including a series of separate crime sprees where women fell for guys coming door to door pretending to be doctors offering free breast exams.

http://www.uhhyeahdude.com/

There's more of the Florida stuff in the earlier episodes, they don't do it as often as they used to these days.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

39. Of COURSE the Florida Division of Elections would want an investigation!

Why WOULDN'T they? :eyes: Seems it might be pretty easy to find out who did this, since the DOT spotted it with traffic cameras...