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Florida Posts Early Voters' Names, Parties Online

POSTED: Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Who you vote for is your business, but voters casting their ballots during Florida's early voting may be surprised to learn that when and where they voted and their party affiliation is not only public record, but accessible to everyone over the Internet.

Every day of the early voting process, state elections officials post the names of everyone who has voted on the Florida Secretary of State, Division of Elections' Web site. Voting records have always been available to the public. Before the Internet age, someone would have to go to the election offices and pour through reams of documents and copies of the records were not available.

In 2006, the Legislature passed a law requiring county election officials to submit the information to the state electronically each day of voting.

With heavy turnout, there are already 150,000 names of voters online, sorted by county and polling place -- with thousands more to be added each day.

Channel 4 discovered Tuesday that this year's early voting records are being posted online daily by state elections officials.

People in line to vote early on Wednesday were quite surprised that the information about their voting would be online by Thursday.

"I don't even know what to say about that," said one voter who didn't even want Channel 4 reporter Jim Piggott to know her name. "Are you serious?"

Others were not concerned.

"As long as you don't have the results and other private information, I don't see where that's any matter," voter Paul Reddy said.

"I don't care what people see because my conscience is clear," Eddie Elvord said.

State officials told Channel 4's Jim Piggott they were simply complying with the law.

Duval County Elections Supervisor Jerry Holland said he was aware the information would be available, but he had not seen it.

Other voters were resigned to the fact that very little is private any more.

"All information is wide open these days, unfortunately," Darrell King said.

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