By John Mack Freeman
An anonymous website has popped up over the last week in response to a petition drive in Houston. A petition was started to put the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance to a public vote. The petition garnered over 50,000 signatures, well over the 17,000 required for the initiative to be put on the ballot. While the signatures are still being reviewed to make sure that they are valid, a new website has gone forward that allows people to search for the name and voter IDs of those that signed the petition.
Some are calling this an unfair invasion of privacy. Those maintaining the site argue that signing a public petition makes those people’s views public. They also have argued that many people were misled into signing the petition, and they wanted to give those people the opportunity to remove themselves from the document through an affidavit with the City Secretary.
What do you think? Is this an invasion of privacy, or a step in the right direction for electoral transparency? Let us know in the comments below.
