What to Make of This

Michigan Secretary of State Terry Lynn Land is being sued by the ACLU and several smaller political parties over who gets access to the information of primary voters. Currently only Democrat and Republican parties are granted access to the information, which is reasonable given that the elections in question were the primary elections for the two parties. On the other hand, because the primaries were run by the state any information gathered on voters is public information, and if it is permissible to release voter information to the major parties, there is in principle no reason to fail to release it to other legitimately interested parties.

I don't know who is right in this dispute (though I'm inclined to side with the Secretary of State), but it seems to me that this demonstrates the wisdom of separating the government from the parties' nominating processes. If the primaries were run by the parties, as opposed to the state, any information gathered on those who voted in the primaries would be the property of the parties themselves and would only be available to outside interests at the discretion of the parties themselves. As the situation stands now, while the Democrats and Republicans clearly have the greatest interest in the information of primary voters, it is not clear that they are the only parties with a legitimate interest in the information, and because state jurisdiction makes any information gathered the property of the state, the exclusive right of the Democrats and Republicans to the information is jeopardized.