Legislators vote to give teenagers’ personal identifying information to criminals – Cost to taxpayers $28,200
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.
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