In seconds, we faked our way into a political campaign, got unsecured voter data

On June 5, polls will be open to voters in eight states, including California, which holds gubernatorial primaries among many other national, state, and local elections. Under California law, voter data (name, address, phone, age, party affiliation) is supposed to be "confidential and shall not appear on any computer terminal... or other medium routinely available to the public." However, there's a big exception to that law: this data can be made available to political campaigns, including companies that provide digital analysis services to campaigns. In other words, candidates and their contractors can get voter data, but there's little definition in the law as to how they are required to be custodians of that data and how that data ought to be secured. "Campaigns are totally reckless with voter data—there's no question about it," said Kim Alexander, the president of the California Voter Foundation, a non-partisan organization that works on the logistics of voting in the Golden State.