Bill Removes Birth Dates From Voter List
The South Dakota Senate is considering a bill that would remove a person’s birth date from the list of all registered voters in the state.
Secretary of State Chris Nelson says many candidates, political parties and others buy the list from the state, and someone could use the birth dates to steal a voter’s identity. However, he also said he’s not aware that such a thing has ever happened.
Lawmakers objected to removing the birth dates from the list, saying they like to know the age of registered voters when planning their campaigns, especially to encourage participation by young voters.
The Senate Local Government decided to compromise by leaving the birth year in the record and removing the birth month and day.
Nelson said the full birth date will still be preserved on the voter registration cards that are filed in each county auditor’s office. However under questioning by Sen. Jason Gant, Nelson said auditors are not required by law to keep original voter registration cards. That means, under current state law, voter registration records are NOT considered public records and auditors are not required to make them available for public inspection.
Gant and others are trying to change the state open records law so more items will be open for inspection by citizens.