Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993 TAG: 9303250351
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
COURT RULES AGAINST VOTER LAW
WHEN A VOTER REGISTRAR demanded Marc Alan Greidinger's Social Security number, Greidinger refused. He said disclosure of the number opened him up to privacy invasions. Then he sued over the state law - and won.
Virginia either must stop requiring that people reveal their Social Security numbers when they register to vote or stop putting those numbers on records that are open to the public, a federal appeals court has ruled.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower-court ruling in a case brought by a man who gave up his right to vote rather than disclose his Social Security number.
"The statutes at issue compel a would-be voter in Virginia to consent to the possibility of a profound invasion of privacy when exercising the fundamental right to vote," the court panel said Tuesday.
Voter registration lists are sold to candidates for office, political parties, elected officials and nonprofit groups that promote voting.
The appeals court agreed that someone who got a Social Security number from the list could steal a person's government benefits, credit cards or paychecks.
A state law that takes effect July 1 would bar Social Security numbers from being on the lists that are sold.
Twelve other states also require voters to list their Social Security numbers, according to the Federal Election Commission Clearinghouse.
Paul Wolfson, a lawyer for Public Citizen Legislation Group in Washington, D.C., who represented the plaintiff, said Georgia is the only other state that requires voters to list their Social Security numbers and then makes the information public.
"We've never had any issue raised about it," said Jack Sinks, spokesman for the Georgia secretary of state's office.
David Parsons, a spokesman for the Virginia attorney general's office, said the ruling would be reviewed with the State Board of Elections before a decision is made on whether to appeal.
The ruling came in the case of Marc Alan Greidinger of Falmouth, a lawyer for the Richmond-based appeals court.
He has been unable to vote since he refused to give his Social Security number to a voter registrar in Stafford County in 1991.
He sued election officials last year, contending that the requirement unconstitutionally burdened his right to vote.
"It was my position that when this number was disclosed it generally could be damaging; it could cause invasion-of-privacy problems," he said.
Greidinger said that to bolster his argument he gave a friend his Social Security number with instructions to find information.
He said the friend was able to trace two loans, find out both the balance and the date of the most recent payment and obtain copies of Greidinger's academic transcript.