Essex closes voters list investigation, says 64 residents affected by unauthorized disclosure

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The Town of Essex has wrapped up its investigation following last week’s concerns about the voters list for the upcoming municipal election.

As AM800 News reported on Friday, the town said it was contacted by multiple residents about a ‘potential unauthorized disclosure of voters’ list information’.

At that time, the town said it was reviewing the situation.

This morning the town released its findings from the investigation and highlighted five points.

They include:

• The personal information of approximately 64 individuals was disclosed without authority by a person involved with a candidate’s election campaign. The personal information disclosed included the names and addresses of such individuals.
• The candidate has confirmed with the Town that steps were taken to investigate the unauthorized disclosure and to remediate it.
• The Town was informed by the candidate that the personal information was collected by the candidate’s election campaign team through field observations and campaign notes and that the candidate has addressed the unauthorized disclosure with the person responsible for the unauthorized disclosure.
• The Town was informed that the candidate’s election campaign team will contact all of the approximately 64 affected individuals by the end of this week to notify them of the unauthorized disclosure of their personal information.
• The Town understands that the candidate and their elections campaign team have introduced measures to prevent a future unauthorized disclosure.

Last week, mayor and mayoral candidate Sherry Bondy issued a statement on the situation, saying that a campaign volunteer made an administrative error by posting ‘standard internal field notes’ showing lawn sign locations.

Bondy said the voters’ list was not leaked, the post was removed within minutes, and the volunteer was let go.

She said she also raised concerns with the town about privacy procedures for campaign volunteers.

In a statement to AM800 News last week, mayoral candidate Trevor Menard said, “This breach of privacy is concerning as it has the potential to compromise the safety and security of residents. This should not be about political accusations. It should be about protecting residents’ information and maintaining public confidence in the integrity of the municipal election process. I believe residents deserve a clear understanding of what occurred and how residential address information along with information identifying themselves and their association to myself came to be posted publicly.”

The town says the matter is now closed.