[pp.int.general] 120 Days Left for Utah in the USA

[Rick Falkvinge (Piratpartiet)]

> Juxi Leitner wrote:
> > I have to agree with Rick, getting the signatures by hand is a pain in
> > the ass we had to try to that last year here in Austria, it's easier
> > to get the support online, much easier :) (how do they check if the
> > signatures are from Utah?)
> 
> Here in Utah, the privacy laws are such that they openly ask for a
> person's home address. Using this method, each signature is considered
> valid if the address matches the voter registration form, and if it
> doesn't, then the SECONDARY match is the signature. The other option is
> to use the social number, which is considered even more private, yet
> which almost anyone will tell you if you ask them for it, almost without
> thinking about it. It's a dangerous state of affairs, and I'm just now
> beginning to understand the depth of the problem.

I'ts noteworthy that the signatures in Sweden required four things;

1) The signer's name
2) The signer's city of residence
3) The signer's signature
4) The signer's full personal ID number (like, mine is 720121-4819:
1972, January, 21, 481st baby born on that date, 9 as a checksum digit)

The item in (4) is like a turbocharged SSN on steroids. Any data
anywhere is tied to that number and not your name - be it data in
governmental, corporate, medical or banking. And the number is present
on every ID card -- identities are usually checked against photo and
personal number, not photo and name.

Outside of our personal sphere, as when dealing with authorities, banks
and hospitals, we are numbers and not names. If you guys think you have
it bad with the Real ID proposals and people being careless with SSNs,
you have no idea where the slope leads.

And of course, people don't see it as an issue at all. It's just a
natural state of things that the government and large services can keep
a perfect tab on everyone. On the other hand, we did lose about half of
the potential signatories due to the personal number being required on
the form - which, I guess, is some kind of a healthy indicator.

(So anyway, it's kind of odd that the name and city of residence was
required on the form as they are totally redundant when the ID number is
included.)

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