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Legal Action Taken to Stop Illegal Ballot Harvesting on University Campuses
The post announces a FERPA complaint, led by Erick Kaardal, over student data shared for campus voter programs. Five Stones and the Great Education Initiative support it.
a complaint was filed to stop what it calls illegal ballot harvesting of university students. The effort is led by Erick Kaardal of Mohrman, Kaardal & Erickson, for Desi Andersen, a former Illinois state-representative candidate, against the U.S. Department of Education. The filing notice is Education Department FERPA filing. The case page is Campus voter data and the ALL IN challenge.
The complaint demands that the Department enforce the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act against the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge and the National Student Clearinghouse / NSLVE program. The post describes ALL IN as an NGO tied to progressive student organizing, and NSLVE as a program gathering student data.
Universities that share student data with those organizations violate FERPA and should lose federal funding unless they stop. It also asks the Department to direct the Department of Justice to check compliance and enforce as needed.
Kaardal is quoted: “A plain reading of FERPA requires the U.S. Secretary of Education to intervene and prevent universities from unlawfully disclosing student records under the guise of voter engagement efforts. If universities are providing student data for ballot harvesting, it is a clear violation of federal law, and the DoE has a duty to act immediately.”
ALL IN and the National Student Clearinghouse / NSLVE claim to promote student voter engagement. The complaint treats that access as a pipeline for illegal ballot harvesting.
Braiden Gonzalez, identified as a student at Illinois State University, is quoted saying the student was not told that enrollment information would go to the National Student Clearinghouse and NSLVE, was not asked to join a get-out-the-vote effort run by nonprofits such as ALL IN, and was not told that records would be cross-referenced with voter files. The quote says consent and transparency should be required whatever the student’s politics.
Five Stones Legal Defense Fund and the Great Education Initiative support the action. Andersen is quoted: colleges exist to educate students, not to serve as tools for influencing elections; civic programs have been used by partisan nonprofits, with political operatives, to reach private student data; ALL IN, NSLVE, and the National Student Clearinghouse collect and analyze enrollment and voting data without explicit consent; and that data is then used to shape electoral outcomes.
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Media contact: Monica Yatooma, 248.667.8001, press@isuegov.com.
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