Minnesota House passes voter data privacy bill
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Minnesota House passed a data privacy bill that would protect voters' party affiliation from becoming public.
According to Secretary of State Steve Simon, all four parties represented in the primary will get the names and party preference of all primary voters. Currently there are no legal restrictions as to what they can do with the data.
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The Minnesota House made some moves Wednesday night.
"I'm super optimistic at the moment that there is going to be a meeting of the minds between the House and the Senate on how to deal with this," said House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park).
The bill now heads to the Senate. According to Simon, even if the bill passes later in the session and not before Super Tuesday, voters' partisan preference would still be protected because there is a 10-week window in which the Secretary of State has to give the data to the national parties.
Ken Martin, Chairman of the Minnesota DFL, released the following statement after the bill was passed:
“I applaud the Minnesota House of Representatives for taking swift action to protect the privacy of Minnesotans everywhere. Minnesotans should not be at risk of their party affiliations becoming public, and Representative Dehn’s bill does an excellent job of defending voters from that possibility.
“With our state’s presidential primary just days away, I urge Senate Majority Leader Gazelka to join the bipartisan coalition of lawmakers who are ready to get this done. It’s time for the Senate to pass Senator Rest’s privacy bill and resolve this issue once and for all so that every Minnesota voter feels free to cast their ballot on Tuesday."