USA: Weird and Worrying Political Data Story

[dewline]

Two questions inspired by this report from SFGate:

https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/california-voter-registration-dmv-automatic-14902100.php

1) Where else is it possible for this to happen?

2) Why should/would any state government entrust this kind of data to the DMV ?

Comments

[sara]

1. All states that don't have same day election registration, c.f. https://www.justice.gov/crt/about-national-voter-registration-act

2. ...because it dramatically increases voter registration rates and is a really good idea. That's why federal law requires it.

This implementation was obviously not optimal.

[melita66]

I've been in California for over 25 years and I think that's how my voter registration was handled. The biggest side effect seems to be that noncitizens get called for jury duty as that's how the courts find potential jurors.