Putting party ahead of the interests of registered voters, the Utah State Senate unanimously voted to lock up the e-mail addresses on voter registration records thereby retaining the Democrat and Republican parties’ monopoly on this information.
At the same time Democrat and Republican Senators unanimously refused to amend the bill (SB18) to protect the birth dates of registered voters because the parties want these to be public records so they can access them.
In e-mails to constituents who requested that birth dates be protected, the bill’s sponsor, Senator Margaret Dayton, said that rather than adding a small two or three word amendment to her bill to protect birthdates, that a separate bill would be run by Representative Becky Edwards in the House of Representatives to protect birth dates.
However, the Utah Republican Party Chairman reportedly told a Republican Central Committee meeting that it was important for the Republican Party to maintain access to voters' dates of birth thereby signaling that the Republican Party will oppose any effort to protect the date of birth of registered voters.
In addition, over the past decade, at least three bills originating in the House to protect registered voter’s date of birth have been killed at the request of both the Democrat and Republican parties. In one case, a powerful lobbyist and Senator Curt Bramble reportedly told the sponsor of a bill to protect birth dates that even if the bill were passed in the House, that it would never pass the Senate.
Opponents say that this smacks of Washington style politics and anticipate that the party supported e-mail protection bill will pass and that the date of birth bill will be defeated.
They are, therefore, asking registered voters to contact Governor Gary Herbert (801-538-1000) and to ask him to stand up for Utah voters by demanding that the date of birth be protected before he signs SB18.
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