A much-criticized database that checks whether voters are registered in multiple states has been suspended “for the foreseeable future” until security safeguards are put in place as part of a settlement of a federal lawsuit, a civil rights group said Tuesday.
The Interstate Crosscheck program was the subject a class-action lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas on behalf of 945 voters whose partial Social Security numbers were exposed by Florida officials through an open records request.
Kansas has operated the multistate program since 2005, although the program hasn’t been used since 2017 when a Homeland Security audit discovered security vulnerabilities….
The future of Crosscheck remains unclear. State elections director Bryan Caskey told a legislative committee in February that Kansas could use $2 million in federal funds untouched by Kobach to gain access to an alternative voter registration database called the Electronic Registration Information Center. The initial cost for access would be $25,000. The office chose not to make $20,000 in security upgrades or use Crosscheck during last year’s election cycle….
Crosscheck’s future had been up in the air since its patron, Kris Kobach, lost the Kansas race for governor in 2018. Kobach, now out of elected office, is seeking the Republican nomination for an open U.S. Senate seat in 2020.
Kobach’s successor as Kansas secretary of state had ordered a review to determine whether to scrap Crosscheck all together.
When the ACLU filed its lawsuit early last year, it said researchers discovered the system produced false positives 99 percent of the time. The lawsuit alleged Kobach sent voter signatures as well as the server address and passwords via unencrypted email. It also contended Kobach had weaponized Crosscheck in his quest to stamp out voter fraud.