It was the Secretary of State’s office who released the sensitive information.
The names of these voters are so protected that the local election supervisor don’t even know who they are. If you were one of the affected voters, you’ll get a letter from the state informing you that your security was compromised.
Ashlin Gibbs of Fort Myers called the breach an invasion of privacy. Lee County Election Supervisor Sharon Harrington was also concerned fearing that some of those affected are from Southwest Florida.
“With our protected or high-risk voters, that information is redacted and you would not get that information,” said Harrington.
In all, there were 15 organizations who obtained the secret information. We obtained the list of groups who got their hands on the information. They include the Florida Democratic Party, the Florida Parole Commission and Homeland Security to name a few.
“There’s any number of reasons why these people would have been requesting that information,” said Harrington.
Florida Secretary of the State Ken Detzner’s office said they accidentally released the private information on March 31st. They quietly posted it on their website, but didn’t notify the media or election supervisors.
“If something is happening on the state level that is going to affect us here locally, we would also like to be notified,” said Harrington.
Those affected will also likely want to be notified, but not even Harrington knows who they are.
“Every one of those people will be personally notified by the Division of Elections or the Department of State explaining what happened,” said Harrington.
Until then, voters like Gibbs are left to draw their own conclusions of how this happened.
“The motives behind a lot of this is usually some sort of manipulation or sales,” said Gibbs.
Detzner’s office said it did contact all 15 organizations that inadvertently obtained the information and told them to destroy or return it to the office. They said there was no evidence that the information may have gotten into the public domain.
Original article here.