Governor's Web Site Reveals Voters' Home Addresses

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Public apology/excuse to be announced in the very near future...

Governor's Web Site Reveals Voters' Home Addresses
Secretary Of State Wants It Taken Down

BOSTON -- Gov. Deval Patrick launched a new page on his political Web site this weekend to organize supporters behind his issues, but Secretary of State William Galvin Monday asked the governor to take it down, fearing the identity of voters may be compromised.

Team 5 Investigates Janet Wu discovered that when people register to participate, it discloses their home address as listed in the Massachusetts voter database. Wu found that anyone could enter a name and a town and find the street address for any registered voter. For some searches, unpublished phone numbers were revealed.

Team 5 Investigates entered the name of a woman with a restraining order against a stalker. Her full address popped up on the Patrick campaign Web site.

Galvin said that he is concerned about privacy issues and worried about misuse of the information.

"I think we're all concerned about people's private information getting public. Just to be clear, this information did not come from my office," said Galvin. "We know elderly voters in particular (are) concerned about people finding their address, what apartment they're in."

"It's information that's publicly available from your city, your city hall, your local voter registration, " said Liz Morningstar of the Deval Patrick Committee.

But Galvin said he believes this is the only Web site where every Massachusetts voter's name is publicly available on one database. The database was purchased by the Patrick committee from a private vendor.

"We don't want this to have a chilling effect on people registering to vote," said Galvin.

Morningstar said if anyone has a complaint to lodge, she welcomes them to go online and register their concerns, but she said the campaign has no intention of taking down the new page.

Nice one, Liz... what universe do you live in?
Until your safety or future is on the line, you really don't care... do you?

Edit to add link... http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/11389226/detail.html

[MADem]

1. Jeeeeez, Deval doesn't need THIS shit. Liz IS an idiot. NT

[Breeze54]

2. I'm totally pissed off!!!

I just did a search on his political website and my address is there!!!!!

It gives my name and my EXACT address!!!!!!

:wtf: :grr:

A note about the data

www.devalpatrick.com believes strongly in protecting people's privacy.
Data on this site is limited to ONLY data that is now publicly available
at any number of locations, including city and town halls, and websites.
The site further limited data today by eliminating specific street address numbers.

It should be noted that in just a few days since this site went live, citizens from
all across the state have connected with each other about issues in a way that was
never available to them easily before. There are citizens discussing education funding,
renewable energy, tax policy and other issues. In some cases, local, elected officials
have posted their opinions and feedback as well.
We think this is an exciting new chapter in civic engagement.
Login to an existing account
http://devalpatrick.com/login.php

Is Deval Patrick completely braindead????

Is Liz Morningstar completely braindead????

I want this site shut down ASAP! Post haste!!

I don't care if "people from across the state are connecting on many issues..."

I don't want them connecting to me uninvited!!!!!

I can't believe this nincompoop is doing this!!

:grr: :grr:


edited to add:

You can't contact them either!!!! This is what I got as a message when I clicked
on Comments, Questions, Feature Requests at the bottom of the page.

Feedback

* For policy suggestions: You're best choice is to create an issue at MyIssue.DevalPatrick.com
and then build support for it in the community. If you want your suggestion to be reviewed by
a member of the governor's staff, please use the form at http://mass.gov/governor

* For website technical problems (for example, trouble creating an account or logging in):
please write to [e-mail]

* For suggestions to add or change features on the web site: Please hold that thought until April.
There are several more features in the pipeline which are almost done. Once they are finished and
we get a little experience with how people use the initial site, we'll start thinking about next steps.

Why should I have to create an account to make a complaint??

I think I'll start an issue: IMPEACH Deval Patrick

:grr:

[TayTay]

3. I assume you are also upset at google or white pages info

that can reveal the same thing. A lot more of your information is public and accessible than you think. If I wanted to find you, I sure don't need to go through a voter list to find you. I can do so by your phone number, a search of your town, sometimes your company web site and many, many other ways. This is the tug of war between information that wants to be public and the need to keep privacy. It is an evolving thing because the technology that permits access to this kind of information is ahead of the law.

Go read this. It's the law on voter lists. Come back and tell me what you think should change. Then tell your state rep to write some laws that change it in the face of evolving technology abilities and also in keeping with the need for public access to what are public records.

http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=1249

[Breeze54]

4. I know all about those

so get off your smug line of commenting.

What they did is total BS!!!

We have Do Not Call lists, Unlisted phone numbers; etc in MA.

Patrick allowed everyone that's registered to vote to be found in one place!

By address! He had to purchase that database. It wasn't 'readily' available.

Google has an 'opt-out' as do the white pages.

[TayTay]

5. It is readily available

To anyone who wants to purchase it. You said as much in your post. Republicans can purchase it (and have) and marketing companies can purchase it as well. (Bioinformatics is a big and growing field.)

You seem to think Deval Patrick invented this. He didn't. This type of information is available all over the place. The law has not kept up with the idea of electronic access to information. This is a big problem. Deval Patrick broke no law in doing this. It is something that needs to be fixed, as much at the root as in the implementation, but the idea of accessible voter info rolls is a good one.

[Breeze54]

6. Broke no law?

Tell that to the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts

[TayTay]

7. That is why I put the opinion up

He broke no law. It's right there.

[Breeze54]

8. Cool! I just looked up Liz Morningstar

Her street address comes up! ;)

[Breeze54]

10. I just searched my phone number on his website

and whalla!!! There I am... address and all!

Cripes!! Talk about invasion of privacy! :grr:

He sure makes it easy for anyone to find voters!

How nice of him. :sarcasm:

[Breeze54]

9. It has to be purchased at the Town Hall

and then they know who has it. It isn't just given out for the asking.
I'll go to my town hall today and try to get a copy.

We'll see!

I never went to Patrick's campaign website to donate or register there.
He made no public announcements that this info was posted there.
This is the first I have heard of him doing this!

I think he has a lot of gaul!