Budget adjustments draw legislative debate on voter roll information

BEATRICE – Nebraska lawmakers rejected an amendment to Appropriations Committee budget adjustments Tuesday, trying to send a message against turning over voter roll information to the federal government.

The amendment dealt with a relatively small increase to the Nebraska Secretary of State’s budget….which Senator Danielle Conrad sought to remove through a floor amendment due to efforts to overturn citizen ballot issues and the turnover of voter roll information.

"I think it's quite disappointing that now we have such a sharp partisan in that important role...who's playing games with our elections and the privacy of our voter integrity".

Senator Megan Hunt was among those supporting leaving out the additional funding for the Secretary of State. She said the voter information was turned over before the Nebraska Supreme Court was able to fully determine whether it was legal, or constitutional.

"A voter's county of residence, voter identification number, registration status, their full name, address, date-of-birth...and then either the last four digits of their social security number, or driver's license or state I.D. number. So, that's personal identifying information that belongs to hundreds of thousands of Nebraskans who trusted their state government to safeguard that information. Once information like that leaves control of the State of Nebraska, it cannot be retrieved, if something goes wrong."

Senator Kathleen Kauth felt opponents of the additional appropriation were misreading the voter information issue.

"Secretary Evnen fulfilled the responsibilities of his job and complied with the lawful request. He used the date-of-birth and the last four digits of the social security number...and not driver's license numbers. Just a note for somebody that already doesn't know...the federal government knows your birthday, and they are the ones that issued the social security numbers, so they know your social security number, as well. Anybody can get these voter lists without the identifying details with it...as long as it's not used for commercial uses."

Hunt said the question isn’t whether the federal government already has the personal data of Americans… but whether it should be compiled and, in her words, “voluntarily sent to an entity that can’t be trusted to keep it secure.”

Senator John Cavanaugh said the real issue is misuse of voter information to gain an advantage…not protect voter integrity.

"And, it has happened because there are certain people, particularly the President of the United States, who are upset that voters don't share their views...the voters voted against them..and have thrown a fit because outcomes of elections did not go the way they wanted them to. Collections of data have a chilling effect. People do not want lots of information about them compiled in places that are unnecessary....and people should rightly be suspicious of that."

In the end, the amendment, F-A 1036, failed on an 8-to-29 vote, with 9 lawmakers not voting.

The Appropriations Committee’s budget recommendations to the Governor’s plan in LB 1071……are contained in Amendment 2162.

Several other amendments to the committee’s main budget recommendations were being considered this week.

On Monday, an amendment filed by Senator Tom Brandt to remove private school funding was defeated on a vote of 17-to-23, with 9 senators not voting. That involved $3.5 million in “bridge” support to allow students to use voter-repealed funding to attend private school…until a federal tax credit goes into effect.

After the Appropriations Committee budget recommendations…state lawmakers this week were scheduled to take up a series of budget transfers contained in LB 1072.

It’s all part of trying to erase a $140 million budget deficit.