"They're there," their voice called out!

I was on Facebook today and was challenged to take the "They're/There/Their" test. Imagine my surprise when I saw this as one of the questions:


Would one be unreasonble to think that a grammar test might make proper use of grammar?

I won't explain the grammatical mistake right now. However, feel free to leave your guess in the comments.

Voter List, Voter Risk

Much is being said (see here and here, for example) about the Alabama Democratic Party's lawsuit against Secretary of State Beth Chapman. The party wants more free copies of the state voter list. Chapman claims that the party is eligible for only one free voter list a year, which the party was given earlier this year. The Democratic Party has also questioned whether $28,000.00 for a statewide list is a fair price to pay.

Have you noticed what is missing from the discussion? I'll tell you what I think is missing: why should anyone have access to my voter information to begin with? (Yes, I'm an Alabamian who is registered to vote.)

I did some digging around. Under Alabama law, the Alabama Secretary of State can sell a lot of information about you to anyone - anyone! - willing to shell out the bucks. Name? Check. Address? Check (home or mailing address!). Date of birth? Check. Phone number? Check (even if your number is unlisted with the phone company!).

And the political parties get the information free at least one time a year. And the Democrats want it free more often than that.

When you registered to vote, did you realize how much information you were putting into the open market? Not just to the political parties. Anyone can get the information, even businesses that are looking to compile a mailing list or who want to target a particular age group.

You might say, "Well, not many people will want to pay $28,000 to get the list." You are right. But I also discovered that price is for the statewide list. You don't have to buy the whole statewide list. Want one county's list? You got it. Want people in a particular zip code? You got that. Want people on a particular street in a particular city? Be happy to give you that, sir!

I regularly get notices from my bank and other businesses telling me that I have privacy rights and that I can restrict how they share my personal information. But if I register to vote, forget it. I asked if I can block my voter record from being sold. The answer: Nope. Our legislators in Montgomery will have to change state law before I can keep my information private.

It doesn't even matter if I have a good reason to protect my privacy.

Are you an abused woman trying to get away from a violent ex-husband or ex-boyfriend? Your state Senators and state Representatives say too bad. If you don't want him knowing where you are, you better not register to vote. What does that say about our democracy?

And the Democratic Party's biggest concern is whether they have to pay one cent to know where you live. I didn't know that we could put such a cheap price on democracy and the right to privacy and on some people's personal safety.

I can't fault the Secretary of State. Chapman is just doing her job. She can't ignore state law.

But I can fault:

• our state legislators - they obviously have a deaf ear about personal information in this age of increased identity theft.
• the Democratic Party - for thinking that it's a fair trade when they do me the honor of sending me political advertising in exchange for letting my personal information go out to people that might do me harm.