This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox said that Utah law requires him to comply with a White House commission's request for the state's public voter rolls. He said, "I assure the voters of Utah that we will only provide information that is otherwise available to the public."
That means that there is nothing for the lieutenant governor to do, since the White House would only need to follow the procedure that is available to the public, you or me or any political party or mass-mailing company.
I would love to have this information, too, if the lieutenant governor would do all the "work" for me of consolidating this mass data. Would it be too much to know my neighbors' legal names, ages, voting records, party affiliations, military status, felony convictions, driver license numbers, and Social Security numbers (for Utah, just put "528—" on the front of the last four digits and you only have to guess at the two middle digits). I wonder if he could also provide bankruptcies, credit scores, pre-existing medical conditions and whether they have a gun in the house.
The lieutenant governor says he will not give out "protected personal information." To me, all my information is protected personal. This mass data sent via insecure email to the federal government for consolidation — what could go wrong?
James Erwin
Cottonwood Heights