Legislators defend ban on copying names from (FL felon) voter lists

[Bushfire]

By Bob Mahlburg
Tallahassee Bureau
Posted June 4 2004

Tallahassee · It has been called dangerous, bizarre and even unconstitutional.

But a Florida law that legally prohibits individuals from copying or writing down names of the state's registered voters -- which is now being challenged in court -- is needed to protect voter privacy, state election officials and key state legislators insist.


Groups such as the NAACP, eager to avoid a repeat of problems in the 2000 presidential election in which thousands of people in Florida were mistakenly purged from voter rolls, have demanded state election officials release the names of more than 47,000 suspected felons who may not be allowed to vote this fall.

<snip>

The ACLU of Florida also is considering joining the (CNN) lawsuit. State elections officials have refused to release names of so-called "potential felons" -- who may be dropped from voting -- sent to county election supervisors, citing a 2001 elections law that prohibits giving such names to anyone but government agencies and officials, political candidates, parties or committees.

more...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-ffelons04jun04,0,6396412.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

[shraby]

1. I'm sure if they win

the suit, Jebbie will hurry up and pass legislation so they still can't get the rolls.

[Bushfire]

2. True, but at least there is a national spotlight being brought by CNN

and hopefully the ACLU that wasn't there in 2000 and 2002.

[klook]

3. This would stop Greg Palast

from publishing the scrub list, as has has done on his web site.

[struggle4progress]

4. The real aim of the "no-copy" law is obvious:

prevent people from learning they've been kicked off the voter rolls until it's too late for them to do anything about it.

I hope somebody out there is doing background research for filing a nice big voting rights lawsuit the day after the election, because the thugs in Florida are cooking up another major fraud.

[1monster]

5. If I recall correctly, this law was passed when it became known that

The 2001 state law does allow parties to get computer lists of voter data such as names and addresses but requires them to take an oath to keep the information confidential.

One state Democratic Party attorney calls the law "wacky." Other critics go much further.

Jebbie and others in Tallahassee were selling voter registration information to telemarketers and other corporate advertising entities.

We were very unhappy about that in this state, this legislation was the result...

Once again, something that was meant to protect our privacy is being used against us by the BFEE. Sigh.