Pennsylvania state officials have decided not to publicize their list of polling places, citing concerns that terrorists could disrupt elections. The Department of State made its decision as a result of terrorist bombings that occurred just days before Spain’s national elections in 2004, spokeswoman Leslie Amoros said.

Critics say the policy runs afoul of the state’s open records law and makes coordinating statewide voter-mobilization strategies more difficult for candidates and political action committees. The state will still give out a specific polling place to a voter inquiry, but won’t release the comprehensive list.

Activists had already been fighting to get access to statewide lists of polling places. It had only been available on a county-by-county basis. “Some campaigns may lack the manpower to gather the information on a county-by-county basis, and some counties are more helpful than others in providing polling place locations,” said Stephanie Frank Singer, the founder of a Philadelphia consulting firm that provides customized lists and data collection for political campaigns and nonprofit groups. Singer said she learned of the policy from an acquaintance whose request for the list was denied a few months ago. She said she is considering challenging the decision.

A case in point this year is the anti-incumbent activist group PACleanSweep, which is urging voters to oust nearly all judges seeking retention because of the 2005 government pay raise debacle. PACleanSweep founder Russ Diamond said the organization obtained a list of all polling places last year as part of its campaign against incumbent lawmakers, although he said state officials have since told him that was a mistake.

“My thought was, ‘Well, the terrorists have won, and democracy takes a back seat,’ ” Diamond said.

Last year, Singer filed a Commonwealth Court lawsuit that sought to limit the cost of obtaining a list of registered Pennsylvania voters from the state. She withdrew the suit after the department agreed to charge a flat $20 fee for the whole list or any number of county lists; the cost was previously $20 per county, or $1,340 for a statewide list.

Singer said she has not decided how to proceed with seeking access to the list of polling places, but she said she would probably file a request for the information under the Right-to-Know Law and appeal to Commonwealth Court if it is denied.

On October 24, a group of Michigan journalists and political consultants filed a lawsuit in state court, asking that the Michigan presidential primary law be declared unconstitutional. The law provides that any voter can vote in either major party’s presidential primary (Michigan does not have registration by party). However, in order to vote in a presidential primary, a voter must identify himself or herself. These lists of which voters voted in each party’s presidential primary are then given to the political parties, but no one else may see them. The lawsuit argues that if the information is being given to the parties, it must be available to the public. The lawsuit is in Ingham County Circuit Court and is probably called Grebner v Land. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this.