Judge hears arguments over profits from voter-list sales

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CONCORD – Lawyers argued in court yesterday about whether the Democratic Party should hand over to the state $300,000 in profits allegedly made from selling state-generated information about New Hampshire voters to presidential candidates and data-mining firms.

The sales were made under a state law passed last year restricting the Secretary of State's Office to selling its enhanced voter lists only to the state's two major political parties. Challenged by the Libertarian Party, the law was ruled unconstitutionally discriminatory in November.

Prior to the ruling, the New Hampshire Democratic Party had sold the list, which it had bought from the state for $450, to at least five presidential campaigns for $65,000 each and for lesser amounts to U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, a firm working for U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes and two politically oriented data-mining firms.

A bill before the state Senate tomorrow would fix the law by broadening the availability of the list to smaller political parties and political committees. But Judge Carol Ann Conboy had ordered yesterday's remedy hearing to determine whether she needed to act to address what had occurred before her ruling.

Union Leader

[LiberalFighter]

1. Did the state party enhance or clean up the list?

Otherwise, why should presidential candidates buy the list for $65,000 from the state party when it could buy it for $450? Or are only the state parties legally able to obtain the data?

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2. State party hustle?

IIRC, in Florida, Democratic candidates buy their voter files from the state party or in the case of local candidates they pay to access data from local DECs.

Also, in Florida, in previous years, a simply request to the SOE is all that is needed to obtain a copy of the voter files.