Voters in Utah recently received a notification from The Office of the Lieutenant Governor informing us that SB 153 which passed earlier this year will remove most voter record privacy protections. Under this new law, employers can find out the party affiliation of their employees, or, more worrisome, the party affiliation of job applicants before they decide whether to hire them. Businesses, neighbors, or church members can now find out how I and everyone else choose to align politically which will only exacerbate political polarization and the breakdown in civility. What good is going to come from this?

It is frankly shocking that in a state that prides itself on small government and personal liberty that the government would launch this attack on privacy. Is the legislature, and Governor Cox who signed SB 153 into law, now going to make Utah another example of big government overreach?

It takes a lot of effort to keep track of the hundreds of legislative proposals that the legislature considers each year. We sure needed to keep better track of this one.

Robert Griffiths

Provo