Mass. to federal commission seeking detailed voter data: Go screw

Massachusetts law specifies that the voter data “shall not be a public record.”

Shall not, as a legal term, means "must not".

It all boils down to how laws are written. Galvin's hands may be tied, and that may be a good thing here.

While voter lists are available to some, they are not available to others, at least at the state level.

At the city/town level you may have better access. For example, I can walk in to City hall and look at the voter lists. They are available to look at in the Elections Dept. So the question is whether such a request is facilitated at the state level of government, or at the city/town level.

Even then there could be restrictions on who can get what as based on published statute.

Pondering matters here... how does such a commission determine fraud? Are they going to load all of these names into a computer someplace and run a comparison check to see if people are registered in 2 states? Locally the election systems already check for duplications by name, DOB, and SSA, and if that is found the name is flagged for checking by the local Elections Depts. A worker is then sent into the field to check the mail box and ask questions. If that is not resolved the name gets flagged and at voting time the election worker is required to stop the person and get proof of residency, otherwise the ballot is set aside until residency is confirmed. This is usually why it takes a couple fo weeks to certify vote counts.

In the 10-years i have been working as an Election Dept worker at a polling place I have only witnessed one "challenged" ballot, but have frequently required people to provide proof of residency, usually because they moved within the state. There are multiple levels of control to assure legal voter registrations, at least here in MA. It's a multi-redundant system of checks and balances.

We are required by law to attend a training class once a year to review the laws and procedures. Average class lasts about 2 hours and everyone is sent home with a "user manual" that is about 50-pages worth to take home to review and read to be prepared on voting day, because on voting day we have to be able to handle any possible situation. For the rare instances that need more help we all have cell phones connected to City Hall.

Voter fraud? Highly unlikely here. Not impossible, but highly unlikely.

So since Russia hacked voting registration rolls wouldn't that be all the more reason to see if any fraud actually occurred? To verify Russia truly did not affect any votes?

Why are some people so opposed to this? Do people not care about voter integrity? Weren't Democrats/the left screaming after the election about Trumps "illegitimate" electoral win?

Calling this "voter suppression" is simply BS and an easy way to paint Republicans as racists bigots.

Meanwhile:
James Madison University student Andrew J. Spieles, 21, of Harrisonburg, pled guilty Monday in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. As part of the plea agreement, Spieles agreed to a prison sentence of 100 to 120 days.

“In July 2016 Spieles’ job was to register as many voters as possible and reported to Democratic Campaign headquarters in Harrisonburg,” a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson said. “In August 2016, Spieles was directed to combine his registration numbers with those of another individual because their respective territories overlapped. After filling out a registration form for a voter, Spieles entered the information into a computer system used by the Virginia Democratic Party to track information such as name, age, address and political affiliation. Every Thursday an employee/volunteer hand-delivered the paper copies of the registration forms to the Registrar’s Office in Harrisonburg.”

"The statute does provide for the secretary of state, who is the state’s chief election official, to make the file available to political parties, statewide candidates or ballot question campaigns."

Even with that, I doubt that the information that is sent to campaigns includes things like felony convictions and Social Security numbers.

Getting an ID takes time and money. There is no need for it. Trump is a serial liar. He said there were 5 million illegal votes and he couldn't even provide proof of one single illegal vote. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that some states(the poor uneducated ones) voted for him.

https://www.aclu.org/issues/voting-rights/fighting-voter-suppression

(voter history) should not even considered to be part of the public record. Neither should be the choice of party ballot a voter is FORCED to accept to participate in a primary election.be part of the public record.

Voting is a RIGHT, not a mandate. Whether or not to cast a ballot, and whose party ballot is chosen, is NONE OF ANYBODY'S BUSINESS but the individual voter making those decisions.

In this case, what is good for the goose, ISN'T good for the gander..

Its so gross that some states allow gun licenses for voting purposes but not state college IDs. Any crazy hick can get a gun license(unfortunately). Getting into college actually takes effort, time and money.

As has been stated ad-nauseam, you can't buy a beer or a cigarette, obtain a library card or even adopt a pet without ID

It's been repeated ad nauseum, and it's been irrelevant every time. There's no constitutional right to do any of those things.

Since you told us about your friend in the Philippines who gave you the inside scoop on Globe subscription rates - tell us again about how many subscriptions had been canceled - can't remember - was it hundreds? Thousands or millions?

Oh yeah - while discussing acts of veracity - when was it again that you had your passport stamped at Reagan airport after deembarking from a domestic flight?

There,s more we could talk about but I don't want to tax you too much.