so this is the California law regarding voter data

> California Elections Code 2194.
> (a) … the affidavit of voter registration information…:
> 3. Shall be provided with respect to any voter …. to any candidate for federal, state, or local office, to any committee for or against any initiative or referendum measure for which legal publication is made, and to any person for election, scholarly, journalistic, or political purposes, or for governmental purposes, as determined by the Secretary of State.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=ELEC&sectionNum=2194.

it’s pretty broad. It’s used by:

  • candidates and campaigns to organize their voter outreach
  • researchers to analyze voter behavior patterns, for example see if there’s a race based or geographic trend for parties
  • sometimes by campaigns to run “hit pieces”, like for example finding that the Republican Governor’s candidate in 2010 had never voted in her life – not sure how legal this last one would be

but it always needs to be elections related. You can’t use it to stalk your ex, or plan a school reunion, etc. It’s hard to enforce, but in theory, it’s one hair removed from the common definition of “public”. Like to get the data, you need to submit a written request to the state or county office where you sign under perjury (or something like that) that it will only be used for elections.

So this property owner information website that dill used seems to have the correct voter reg data. It looks detailed enough.

This use of the data would not be legal.

The website tried to skirt the issue by meekly putting this disclaimer:
> Voter registration data is public information and sharing this information helps maintain a healthy democracy. However, if you are concerned about your information being shared, you can request that your information be redacted.

seems pretty weaksauce to me.

The laws I cited are California’s, but it shouldn’t be too different from state to state