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OBA: We didn’t use voter info sent in error

The Office of the Parliamentary Registrar has conducted in investigation into the sharing of confidential voter data.

The One Bermuda Alliance insisted today that it complied with a request from the Parliamentary Registrar not to use confidential voter information after it was sent to them by mistake.

The Opposition spoke out after the Parliamentary Registrar’s office held an investigation into allegations by voters that their information was provided to the Progressive Labour Party.

David Burt, the Premier, claimed during Friday’s motion to adjourn in the House of Assembly that an online report found the OBA requested and received voter information in 2012.

But OBA chairman Justin Mathias said: “On one occasion the OBA received a data feed with e-mails and telephone numbers.

“Once this was realised the OBA campaign team were told by the then Parliamentary Registrar, Mr Randy Scott, that this was sent in error and we were not to use this confidential voter data.

“We complied with this request and did not keep the information or act on its contents.

“The OBA never received this extra confidential data again.”

The OBA said John Rankin, the Governor, should release the results of the Parliamentary Registrar’s investigation into leaks of voter information. The OBA spokesman added: “The PLP should be joining us in calling for the report to be made public as it is also very much in their interests that this matter is resolved, otherwise they will for ever have an asterisk next to their name.

“After the 2012 General Election, the automatic feed was shut down, and the OBA received feeds of only publicly available data twice per year through a manual download. Yet we know that confidential information continued to be obtained.

“This has been confirmed to be true, as their Leader David Burt told a press conference the day before last year’s General Election that the PLP was still receiving confidential voter information in 2017.”

The OBA highlighted a statement from Mr Burt.

It read: “The information in which we receive is the same information that we have received from the Parliamentary Registrar, I want to say ... for the last ten years so nothing has changed in the side of our process.

“The information we received does include that [e-mail addresses and mobile phone numbers], yes. We have a link that we download the information from that we have been downloading information from for the past seven or eight years.”

Update: This story initially reported that the comments were from a One Bermuda Alliance spokesman. It has been amended to say they were from OBA chairman Justin Mathias. We apologise for the error.