Currently, all Utah voters can make their voter records private. When they do this, the Democratic and Republican parties can’t get their personal identifying information and this does not sit well with those two parties.

So, in a rare bipartisan act, the Democratic and Republican Party leaders are behind a bill, SB83 which is sponsored by Senator Jake Anderegg. That bill requires Utahns who want to exercise their right to vote to give their personal identifying information to the Democratic and Republican parties even if they do not belong to either of those parties.

In addition the bill requires registered voters to give their personal identifying information to any candidate for any office.

But it doesn’t stop there because every voter’s personal identifying information is then given to the parties’ and the candidates’ employees, volunteers, contractors and agents.

The bill has a price tag of $28,200 but that is no problem for the parties since the taxpayers will have to foot it. What a deal! Parties get everyone’s information and stick the taxpayers with the bill.

So, where does this bill stand. It has passed the Utah state Senate by a vote of 27-0 with two absent. On Friday, March 6, the Utah House of Representative’s Government Operations Committee rushed the bill through in under ten minutes and voted 7 to 1 with three absent in favor of it. Only Representative Phil Lyman stood with the People and voted against it.

Now the bill has to pass the full House. Its passage is virtually assured because the vast majority of legislators will put their party first and because they want the name, address and age of every registered voter in their district so they can effectively target them in their re-election campaigns.

Perversely, these legislators could care less that, under this bill, the names, addresses and ages of over a million Utah voters will be available to individuals with criminal records or with criminal intent as long as they officially declare their candidacy for a public office since no background check is required to get this information.

In fact, in just the past several years, Republican candidates have included an individual with a long rap sheet including a felony conviction for assault, a person who pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of sexual battery, an incumbent who was accused of improper behavior with a student and an individual who was accused of defrauding a senior citizen.

So what can you do to stop this? Not much. But if you want to, you can try contacting your legislator or House and Senate leadership, but they are too busy listening to their parties and worrying about their re-election campaigns, so good luck.