Marion County Election Board To Reconsider Voter Data Policy

The Marion County Election Board is meeting today to reconsider its recent decent not to adopt a policy for the release of electronic voter registration data, a move derided by several non-slated candidates for office in the May 8th primary who have been denied access to the electronic voting records they had requested for use in their respective campaigns. Several judicial and legislative candidates filed a lawsuit last week in the Marion Co. Circuit Court seeking a preliminary injunction that would force the board to adopt a nondiscriminatory policy for releasing electronic voter registration information in accordance with state law. The court agreed to stay its proceedings by agreement of the parties to give the board time to meet today to reconsider its decision not to adopt a policy. A preliminary injunction hearing had been scheduled for 1:00 p.m. today. The election board will meet this morning at 10:00 a.m. to take up this issue.

UPDATE: The board adopted a policy today, but it can hardly be described as a nondiscriminatory policy. The information the nonslated candidates can get is bulk data that provides only the names and addresses of the registered voters in the county. The candidates will not be allowed to filter their requests to include only those persons who have a history of voting in the Republican or Democratic primary in past elections. The slated candidates, of course, are able to get their information directly from their respective parties, which get it in bulk from the state election division, which includes additional information about the voter's past voting history, sex and date of birth. Essentially, the only purpose the candidates could use the information is a shotgun mailing that would encompass many voters who would never vote in the candidate's respective party primary. Such a mailing would be extremely costly and wasteful. That's the purpose behind the policy--to make it a waste of time to even obtain the data in electronic format.