Q&A of the Day – Is your voting history a public record in Florida?
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
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Today’s entry: Twice I have heard an ad stating that your vote is public record and that your family, your friends, and your employer can, after the election, access the public records and find out for whom you voted. This smacks of voter intimidation similar to what has been disclosed as coming from Russia and Iran. Please look into this and take appropriate steps stop the intimidation.
Bottom Line: There isn’t a day that goes by in which I’m not hearing about claims of voter intimidation. To date, all that I’ve looked into have been explainable, with only texts and emails attributed to Russia and Iran proving to be not legitimate. That’s not to say there isn’t inappropriate behavior that has or will take place, just that most of what’s been shared, especially on social media, is old or doctored. In the case of what you’re describing, it’s an ad campaign which has cropped up in multiple cycles over the years. The current incarnation of the campaign appears to have derived from a PAC, “Citizens for a Better Florida”, which began advertising in the 2014 election cycle. The ads convey generally what you’ve stated with a caveat. They don’t indicate whom you’ve voted for, but rather that your neighbors, etc. can view your voting record. That's an important distinction.
In Florida, here’s what’s public record (as it pertains to voting):
- Voter registration status (whether you’re registered or not)
- Party registration status
- Whether you’ve requested a vote-by-mail ballot or not
- If you voted or not
All of that information is used to by the campaigns to attempt to activate and target voters. If you’re a registered partisan for example, and you receive communication from your party stating their records indicate you’ve not voted – that's not just campaign hype – they review records daily. Campaigns use that information to focus resources related to turnout during election cycles. While the extent of the public record disclosure may be enough to make some uncomfortable, what isn’t disclosed is who you voted for. Your specific votes aren’t public record. No one can see who or what you’ve specifically for in any election. Only if you did vote.
I’d agree that ad campaigns like the one you’ve flagged are in poor taste. The information shared is technically correct – though I agree there’s an effort to attempt to make it seem like even more information is being disclosed than is the case. Florida’s public disclosure laws have long been a reason why, until this cycle, NPA’s had been leading all political parties in voter registration. Florida’s disclosure of voter information is as overt as any state in the country. If the level of disclosure makes you uncomfortable, I’d recommend contacting your state representative and senator to advocate for greater privacy.