Kansas Attorney General Opinion 2017-010

July 11, 2017
ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 2017- 10
The Honorable Jim Ward
House Minority Leader
State Capitol, Room 359-W
300 S.W. 10th Avenue
Topeka, Kansas 66612
Re: 	Elections—Registrations 	of 	Voters—Application 	for 	Registration;
Limitations on Public Inspection of Registrations
State Departments; Public Officers and Employees—Public Records—
Social Security Numbers; Disclosure in Public Documents with Personal
Information, Prohibited; Use for Commercial Purposes, Restricted
Synopsis: 	The Secretary of State is prohibited by Kansas law from releasing the last
four digits of a registered voter’s Social Security number and also may not
release the residence address of any registered voter who has properly
requested that his or her address be concealed as allowed by statute. With
those exceptions, Kansas law allows the Secretary of State, in his (or her)
discretion, to release records containing the full name, date of birth, and
party affiliation of a registered voter. Cited herein: K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 25-
2304; 25-2309; 25-2320; K.S.A. 45-216; K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 45-217; K.S.A.
45-218; K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 45-220; 45-221; 45-230; 50-7a01; and 75-3520.
* 	* 	*
Dear Representative Ward:
As House Minority Leader, you ask our opinion 1 whether the Secretary of State may
disclose to the federal government voter registration information that “will contain the full
1 Your letter requesting our opinion is undated, but we received it on July 3, 2017.

Representative Jim Ward
Page 2
name, address, date of birth, party affiliation and the last four digits of [the voter’s] [S]ocial
[S]ecurity number.”2 	You question “the legality of sending this data to the federal
government without the consent of individual Kansas voters or without legislative
approval,” and express concern that doing so may violate state privacy laws.
The Secretary of State is required by statute to maintain a centralized voter registration
database that “shall include all necessary voter registration information from every county
within the state of Kansas.” 3 	The information that a person must supply to the county
election officer when registering to vote, and that therefore ultimately becomes part of the
Secretary of State’s database, is required by statute to include all five of the data elements
about which you have inquired. 4 The information contained in that database is a “public
record”5 possessed by a “public agency” 6 within the meaning of the Kansas Open
Records Act (KORA).7 	The Legislature has declared the public policy of Kansas to be
that “public records shall be open for inspection by any person unless otherwise provided
by [the KORA]” and has directed that the KORA “shall be liberally construed and applied
to promote such policy.”8 Under the KORA, “any person,” including persons working for
the federal government, may inspect public records in Kansas.9
Your question is whether the Secretary of State may disclose the information in its voter
registration database. The KORA either requires or allows the disclosure of these public
records unless some other provision of law forbids disclosure. 10
2 We note that you also seem to ask more broadly about the “disclos[ure] [of] private voter data to the
federal government”; however, in the letter requesting the information of which you speak, the Presidential
Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, acting through its vice-chair, specifically requested “publicly
available voter roll data for [the State], including, if publicly available under the laws of [the] state, the full
first and last names of all registrants, middle names or initials if available, addresses, dates of birth, political
party (if recorded in [the] state), last four digits of social security number if available, voter history (elections
voted in) from 2006 onward, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony
convictions, information regarding voter registration in another state, information regarding military status,
and overseas citizen information.” Because the request asks only for data “publicly available under the laws
of [the] state,” it would appear on its face to exclude from the request any private data. See Presidential
Advisory Commission on Election Integrity Letter to the Secretaries of State, June 28, 2017. This opinion
addresses only the five specific data fields you enumerated – full name, address, date of birth, party
affiliation and the last four digits of the voter’s Social Security number.
3 K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 25-2304(b).
4 See K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 25-2309(b) (list of required information, including name, address, date of birth,
party affiliation and the last four digits of the voter’s Social Security number).
5 K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 45-217(g)(1).
6 K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 45-217(f)(1).
7 K.S.A. 45-215 et seq.
8 K.S.A. 45-216(a).
9 K.S.A. 45-218(a).
10 K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 45-221(a) enumerates 55 exceptions to the KORA’s general policy of mandatory
disclosure, but “[t]he KORA does not prohibit disclosure of records contained within these exceptions but
makes their release discretionary with the agency's official records custodian.” Data Tree, LLC v. Meek,
279 Kan. 445, 455 (2005). If no exception to disclosure in the KORA applies, then the public agency is not
only allowed but required to disclose a record in response to a request for records. Determining whether
the Secretary of State is statutorily required to disclose any of the records he is allowed to disclose would
require an extensive analysis to determine whether any KORA exemption to disclosure applies. We do not
perform that analysis because your question about the “legality” of release is answered once we determine
that Kansas law allows the release of certain data elements.

Representative Jim Ward
Page 3
In this case, neither courts nor the Secretary need speculate about how to balance the
privacy interests of Kansas voters with the public need to know the requested information
because the Legislature has performed that balancing. 11 	By statute, the Legislature
authorized disclosure of most of this information but has prohibited disclosure of the
Social Security number. 12 	Thus, the Secretary of State is forbidden to release the last
four digits of a voter’s Social Security number submitted as part of a voter registration and
must redact that information from any records that may be released.13
Another Kansas statute allows any registered voter to request that his or her residence
address “be concealed from public inspection on the voter registration list and on the
original voter registration application form.”14 To do so, the voter must make the request
in writing to the county election officer and must “specify a clearly unwarranted invasion
of personal privacy or a threat to the voter’s safety.”15 	When such a request is properly
made, “the county election officer shall take appropriate steps to ensure that such
person’s residence address is not publicly disclosed.” 16 Although this statute addresses
the duty of the county election officer, not explicitly of the Secretary of State, we think the
intent of the Legislature is clear that a registered voter shall have the ability to prevent
Kansas election officials from publicly disclosing his or her residence address.17
We are unaware of any statute 18 that prohibits the dissemination of the other data
elements about which you ask – name, date of birth, or party affiliation. 19 Thus, records
11 See generally, Data Tree, LLC v. Meek, 279 Kan. 445, 462 (2005) (discussing balancing of interests).
12 K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 25-2309(j). At least two other statutes also prohibit the public dissemination of the
entire Social Security number of an identifiable person. K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 25-2320(b) and 75-3520. We
think these statutes reflect a strong public policy to protect such highly personal information.
13 Id.
14 K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 25-2309(i).
15 Id.
16 Id.
17 There may be other mandatory or discretionary exemptions to disclosure that apply; this a factual
determination left to the public agency.
18 The Kansas Supreme Court has held that under certain circumstances, the dates of birth contained in
public records may be discretionarily withheld under K.S.A. 2014 Supp. 45-221(a)(30), which allows a public
agency to refuse to disclose “[p]ublic records containing information of a personal nature where the public
disclosure thereof would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” See Data Tree,
supra. However, the Court made clear that this is a case-by-case determination that requires “balancing
the privacy interests of the individual with the public’s need to know.” Id. at 462. K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 45-
221(a)(30) is identical to K.S.A. 2014 Supp. 45-221(a)(30).
19 In your letter, you cite K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 50-7a01. That statute, which relates to security breaches of
consumer information, defines “personal information” as “a consumer's first name or first initial and last
name linked to any one or more of the following data elements that relate to the consumer, when the data
elements are neither encrypted nor redacted: (1) Social Security number; (2) driver's license number or
state identification card number; or (3) financial account number, or credit or debit card number, alone or in
combination with any required security code, access code or password that would permit access to a
consumer's financial account. The term ‘personal information’ does not include publicly available
information that is lawfully made available to the general public from federal, state or local government
records.” Because the Secretary of State may not release any part of a registered voter’s Social Security
number, none of the data released would fit within the definition of personal information contained in K.S.A.
2016 Supp. 50-7a01.

Representative Jim Ward
Page 4
containing that information may be released to any person, including persons in the
federal government, upon request.20
For the reasons above, we conclude that the Secretary of State is prohibited by Kansas
law from releasing the last four digits of a registered voter’s Social Security number and
also may not release the residence address of any registered voter who has properly
requested that his or her address be concealed as allowed by statute. With those
exceptions, Kansas law allows the Secretary of State, in his (or her) discretion, to release
records containing the full name, date of birth, and party affiliation of a registered voter.
Sincerely,
Derek Schmidt
Kansas Attorney General
Athena E. Andaya
Deputy Attorney General
DS:AA:sb
20 This information may not be released to a requester who will use it for “commercial purposes.” See K.S.A.
2016 Supp. 45-220(c) and K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 45-230. However, nothing in your inquiry suggests that is the
purpose of this requester, and K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 45-230(a)(4) contemplates use for political campaign or
election purposes.