SALT LAKE CITY – Many Utahns were upset after a New Hampshire man purchased Utah voter records and put the data online, and a new piece of legislation is in the works in response to the controversy.
The website in question has posted details about Utahns, including their home addresses and phone numbers. The man behind the website purchased the public records legally and set up the site to make a profit by selling advertisements.
Senator Karen Mayne, D-District 5, is sponsoring the legislation in question, which was drafted about two months ago after the website was brought to Mayne’s attention.
“This is something that we cannot tolerate, so we have a piece of legislation that’s going to stop this,” she said. “It’s not against the law to buy this from the Lt. Governor’s election office, it’s not… we need to put restrictions, so people cannot sell it for gain.”
The legislation would make it so voter information can only be sold for political, governmental, journalistic or scholarly reasons.
