(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) A lawsuit has been filed against the Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon because he violated federal law for practicing cleaning the state’s voter’s roll by sharing citizens’ private information with a third party.
The disclosure and use of personal information found in state motor vehicle databases was restricted by the 1994 federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act [DPPA], the Epoch Times reported.
However, it didn’t stop the state of Minnesota from giving away private information to the Electronic Registration Information Center [ERIC] since 2014 to maintain the state’s voter registration records.
The state promised to give ERIC the private information of everyone who gets a license, as part of the agreement, which included registered voters, people who are not registered to vote and minors ages 16 and 17 who are not yet old enough to vote, but who are, in Minnesota, allowed to preregister for voting.
Sharing data collected in the driver’s license process violates the DPPA, according to the lawsuit that was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
On Oct. 12, 2023, in a press call with Attorney Erick Kaardal of the law firm Mohrman, Kaardal & Erickson on behalf of the Minnesota Association for Government Accountability, and individual Minnesota citizens, parents, minors and state senators Mark Koran and Calvin Bahr, the filing was announced.
It was reported that ERIC uses the data to make lists of eligible but unregistered voters and requires the states it contracts with to use these lists to attempt to get them registered for voting, which is the real purpose of ERIC. The plaintiffs argued that it is not allowed.
The state’s membership agreement with ERIC also allows the latter to share the private driver data with ERIC’s agents, contractors and subcontractors.
“We must execute our election activities in a nonpartisan manner, and we should never use our government resources—our data— to influence elections. This data, in many cases, is not available to the public, or other partisan entities for political or other purposes,” Koran said.
