Who did you vote for? Let me tell you
Usually when we’re considering privacy and redacting information, it’s to prevent bad actors from obtaining key pieces of data about individuals like their social security number or birthdate. That being said, there are other pieces of information that individuals may want to keep private as well, like their voting record.
In Texas, the concern of people’s voting records being released has led to emergency guidance coming from the state’s head of elections and a legal opinion from the state’s Attorney General to keep this information private.
After the 2020 election, the state saw a large increase in requests to view the records of cast votes. Seeking to make it easier to access these records, Texas passed House Bill 5180, which cut the time that the public has to wait for voting records down to 61 days. The reduced wait time allowed some sleuths to be able to match data points about a ballot to identify an individual voter in some cases.
The issue came to a head when Tarrant County received a request for 12 years of registered voters’ history including names, addresses, and voter IDs. While not everyone whose information is requested can be tied to an individual ballot, this still prompted the legal opinion from AG Bill Paxton’s office that said, “election records custodians must redact … personally identifiable information to protect the constitutional right to a secret ballot in Texas.”
Election division director Christina Adkins, who also issued guidance, noted that when election officials receive requests, they’ll need to consider redacting information like ballot numbers, dates, and locations, depending on the specific case. When records are voluntarily posted to a county website, she said that officials should, “redact any information on the precinct election records or on the ballot image that identifies the location at which a voter voted.”
Information that can be requested or gathered regarding voters varies by state, but the data can’t be used for commercial purposes. It can, however, be requested by campaigns and officials for things like voter turnout campaigns. This explains how and why you’d receive a mailer showing your accurate voting history. Of course, a postcard like this won’t identify who you voted for.
As technology becomes more sophisticated and we create exponentially increasing levels of individual data, it becomes easier to determine someone’s unique identity. This means that the methods we have for accumulating and distributing data will have to evolve to properly protect citizens. In addition to the immediate guidance Texas has issued, the state is also considering structural changes to its election process. For instance, there are currently voting precincts with as few as 50 voters, making those ballots much easier to identify.
Privacy and access are always a difficult balance to maintain and often an ever-changing one as technology, motivation, and circumstances may throw a wrench into a previously viable policy. At Extract, we know the importance of properly finding and redacting personally identifiable information. Our automated redaction software can find and redact information on any type of document instantly, keeping your sensitive information and any data you’re responsible for, private.
