Submission + - Publicly available voter registration data
wawannem writes: "I went to my local Ohio county website to find out when the polls open tomorrow and was presented with a link to a page to search for voter registration data — http://www.wcoil.com/vote2008/ of course, I searched for myself and found my home address. What surprised me was that it was searchable. For example, putting in 'w' as the last name lists all voter registered in my county who's last name begins with the letter 'w,' and their home addresses. I have a few friends and family members in law enforcement that were pretty upset to find out how easily someone can find their home address using this tool. I thought for sure that it was a terrible oversight in privacy (it happens when you live in BFE). But, I did a search and found another — http://www.tax.co.harris.tx.us/voter/pctdatadownload/ . This was only the second link on google. Did I miss something somewhere along the line? I know that certain exposures of home address data are unavoidable (such as when you mortgage a home), but this seems to make it too easy. Does registering to vote mean that my home address becomes a matter of public record?"