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Utah to Make Most Voter Registrations Public Under New Law

Officials call the change compliance with federal norms, preserving privacy for sensitive identifiers.

Overview

  • Elections officials are rolling out SB153 with at-risk applications due by May 6 before roughly 1.3 million currently private or withheld registrations become public May 25, a shift that has prompted anxious calls to county clerks.
  • Public voter files will show a person’s name, address, party affiliation and voting history by election, and they will not reveal birth dates, Social Security or driver’s license numbers, or how anyone voted.
  • The law narrows confidentiality to an at-risk category that includes domestic-violence victims, law enforcement and military households, people protected by court order and public figures who received threats, with county clerks deciding based on documents.
  • Access to the statewide list requires a $1,050 purchase from the elections office and posting the data online can bring a class A misdemeanor with up to 364 days in jail and a $2,500 fine.
  • Utah remains in a Justice Department lawsuit over access to full voter rolls as the lieutenant governor refuses to release sensitive fields and has asked a federal judge to dismiss the case.