A publishing company sued by the state for improperly publicizing personal dates of birth and home addresses for hundreds of thousands of voters has settled the case without admitting criminal wrongdoing.
WBEZ reports that Local Government Information Services, Inc., a Lake Forest-based operator of dozens of online news outlets accused of using pink slime journalism entered into the previously unreported settlement agreement with Raoul’s office in late January.
The agreement in Lake County Circuit Court requires the company to destroy any restricted voter data it had that included birth dates and home addresses and to refrain from publishing any such data if it originated from voter roll information that originated from the Illinois State Board of Elections.
No fines were levied as a result of the agreement, which required the company to cover its own legal expenses, and LGIS did not admit any liability or unlawful conduct as a result of its actions.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office contended in the lawsuit last May that the company ad violated state election law by illegally obtaining and publishing voters’ dates of birth and street numbers. Raoul’s office said that it created a public safety concern by having people’s private information published on the Internet.
A Lake County judge ordered that the restricted voter data be removed from LGIS’ websites shortly after the lawsuit was filed, and the company slowly complied.
Raoul’s office did not explain the settlement agreement and only released a comment saying that they were pleased the case was solved. The attorney general’s office did not indicate whether it had received any complaints from voters concerning identity theft or any potential threats arising from LGIS’ publication of restricted voter roll information.
LGIS, owned by former media personality Brian Timpone, dissolved on Jan. 10th according to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office. Reporting by WBEZ, the Chicago Sun-Times, and this news outlet showed that LGIS had exposed more than 6 million Illinois voters last year, including dozens of state and federal judges whose places of residence are legally protected.
The West Central Reporter, which covers this area, was one of the final websites to purge information from its website last year.