Voter Data Becoming Election Issue for Senate Republicans

Senate Republicans have used the company VoterTrove for several years, as a way to aggregate the names, addresses and information about people who sign petitions and interact with them online.

The information, according to both VoterTrove and Senate Republicans, isn't mined or distributed elsewhere.

Where Republicans have run into issues is the fact that GOP campaigns in Connecticut have previously used VoterTrove, while it was contracted with the state-funded senate GOP caucus.

The Meriden Record Journal previously reported that State Senate Candidate Len Suzio had previously purchased a voter list from VoterTrove in 2014.

Suzio confirmed the purchase of the list to NBC Connecticut, but maintained that in the grand scheme of a campaign, it wasn't a major expense.

He said he purchased the list from VoterTrove because had he purchased a list of voters that's publicly available from the Secretary of the State, it wouldn't have been broken down by Senate District.

"It was very simple, very straightforward and easy for our campaign. It saved us time by not having to go through every record that wasn’t in the district," Suzio said Monday.

Justin Gargiulo, the CEO of VoterTrove and former Republican staffer in Connecticut said there was no connection between the list Suzio obtained and the service provided to Senate Republicans paid for with taxpayer money.

"The publicly available file provided did not contain any enhancements, emails, or other data collected by users of the VoterTrove platform. The voter file contained only records of voters in the 13th district as provided by the Secretary of the State’s Office."

Sen. Dante Bartolomeo, who is facing a re-election fight from Suzio, has a question she says is a simple one.

"If it’s truly the same information from the Secretary of State it would be free. Why put the money there? It’s throwing it away, right?"

Bartolomeo is concerned that she could see a similar use of taxpayers money if and when Suzio qualifies for the Citizens Elections Program that would provide his campaign state funding.

"My opponent is trying to put a spin on it that it’s information readily available from the Secretary of the State," she said.

Suzio said of the list he obtained, "There was nothing wrong with it as far as I’m concerned.”

Sen. Len Fasano, the top member of the Senate GOP Caucus also said the issue has been overblown because all of the names came from the Secretary of the State there is no problem.

"There is no issue with him or anyone else obtaining this list or any list that’s available through our state’s transparency laws."

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