Anne Bucher  |  June 21, 2018

Category: Consumer News

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An attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Kansas has filed a class action lawsuit against Kris Kobach, the Secretary of State of Kansas, accusing him of recklessly disclosing Kansas voter data.

The class action lawsuit was filed just one day after the ACLU prevailed in another federal lawsuit against Kobach, resulting in the striking of a Kansas voter identification law requiring Kansas residents to provide documents proving their citizenship in order to register to vote.

Plaintiffs Scott Moore, James Long and Nancy Perry accuse Kobach of sharing Kansas voters’ personal information, including partial Social Security numbers, to other states in connection with the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program.

“Plaintiffs challenge Defendant Kobach’s reckless maintenance and disclosure of their private voter data as an unconstitutional invasion of privacy and a violation of the Kansas Public Records Act, which prohibits government disclosure of social security numbers,” the Kansas voter data class action lawsuit says.

The Crosscheck program, which is reportedly funded exclusively by Kansas taxpayers, is used to compare voter registration information among participating states, according to the Kansas voter data class action lawsuit.

“Crosscheck compares registration lists and analyzes voters’ first name, surname, and date of birth to determine whether individuals are registered in multiple states,” the Crosscheck class action lawsuit states. “Because the matching criteria yields false positive results in 99.5% of cases, Defendant Kobach encourages states to provide voters’ partial social security numbers and other confidential information to narrow the list of possible double registrants.”

Kobach, as the operator of Crosscheck, and his staff compare the voter registration lists submitted by the other participating states and sharing “potential match” result lists with them, the Crosscheck class action lawsuit says. Kobach also coordinates access to the file transfer protocol (FTP) server.

The plaintiffs say Kobach regularly emails the URL and password that allows access to voter data in plain text, and that this information is “widely shared,” even with non-government officials.

To identify voters who may be simultaneously registered to vote in more than one state, Koback sends voters’ signatures to other states that participate in Crosscheck, the Kansas voter data class action lawsuit alleges. Kobach reportedly sends these signatures as an unencrypted email attachment.

Since Kobach took over operation of Crosscheck in 2011, 10 states have stopped participating in the program because of security risks and concerns about the reliability of the data.

In November 2017, the Florida Department of State Division of Elections (FDE) reportedly released the voter registration information of 945 Kansas voters, and included their names, birthdates, addresses and partial Social Security numbers.

“The exposed information was shared by Defendant Kobach’s office as an encrypted attachment to an email sent to FDE,” the Kansas voter data class action lawsuit says.

The plaintiffs argue that Kobach has made vague promises about improving his data security practices, yet “continues to recklessly expose private voter data by sending sensitive personal information to participant states that cannot guarantee the confidentiality of these records.”

The Kansas voter data class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the plaintiffs and a proposed Class of registered voters in Kansas who provided their partial Social Security number on their voter registration form and whose information has been or will be shared with another state or third party through an unsecure method because of Kansas’ participation in Crosscheck.

The plaintiffs are represented by Lauren Bonds of the ACLU Foundation of Kansas and by Mark P. Johnson of Dentons US LLP.

The Kansas Voter Information Class Action Lawsuit is Scott Moore, et al. v. Kris Kobach, Case No. 2:18-cv-02329-CM-GLR, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

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2 thoughts onACLU Hits Kobach With Kansas Voter Data Class Action Lawsuit

  1. Vickie Piggie says:

    Worried about my personal information getting into the wrong hands!!

  2. Lydia Shumock says:

    Worried my voter’s info may have been shared illegal.

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