A bill seeking to limit access to voter registration records was held Wednesday by a House committee after concerns were raised about what information political parties and candidates would be able to see. The sponsor of HB348, Rep. Becky Edwards, R-North Salt Lake, agreed to continue working on the bill with members of the House Government Operations Committee. “This is a pretty significant policy change, a pretty dramatic one,” said Rep. Jeremy Peterson, R-Ogden, the committee chairman, adding that he wanted to “see what we can do to fine tune it.”
Edwards said the intent of the bill is simple — to protect voter registration information unless a person agrees to share their information with the public when he or she signs up to vote.
She said such protection would help victims of domestic violence, as well as members of the military and law enforcement and their families, because “for these vulnerable populations, the issue is of grave concern.”
But a provision in the bill limiting candidates and political parties to information only about voters in their own parties drew concern from Utah Democratic Party Chairman Peter Corroon and others.
Full Article: Bill protecting voter registration information held by committee | Deseret News.