Issue 01 | December 2022
Partial Social Security Numbers Released in Voter Data Response
This is the core event: the Auditor's Office sent out a voter-data spreadsheet that included partial Social Security numbers that were not authorized for public release, then the official notice to impacted voters was signed by an assistant/public-records staff member rather than Farmer herself.
According to the Pierce County Auditor's Office notice, a public-records request for voter registration data was fulfilled on December 20, 2022. Names, addresses, and birthdates are public information, but the notice says the last four digits of Social Security numbers are retained by the office and are not authorized for public release.
The notice says an employee mistakenly provided a spreadsheet that included partial Social Security numbers. Farmer's later public statement described the released digits as the last two, three, or four digits, depending on the voter.
The scale is the point. The notice and AP reporting identified 463,110 affected voters, and the requester had not asked for Social Security information.
The office said this was not a hack or third-party technology breach. That distinction matters, but it does not erase the basic problem: protected voter information left the office because an incorrect file was released.
Leadership is also part of the story. Harry Truman famously kept a 'The Buck Stops Here' sign on his desk. When a public office sends voters a breach notice signed by staff rather than the elected official in charge, it sends the opposite signal: the buck stopped somewhere lower on the org chart.
That matters because this pattern appears again in the voter-pamphlet delay story. The public explanation pointed to vendor error, but public-record materials reviewed for this archive indicate the office sent a limited-scope primary file for a wider election mailing and approved quantities that should have raised questions before voters were affected.