Lawmakers rush to make voters' party affiliations private ahead of Tuesday primaries

(FOX 9) - A bipartisan group of lawmakers is working hard to pass legislation that aims to protect voter’s party affiliation from becoming public, with the Minnesota house expected to vote Wednesday.

While Minnesota has never had party registration, now that the state has switched to a primary format voters will have to pick a side.

According to Secretary of State Steve Simon, all four parties represented in the primary will get the names and party preference of all primary voters. Currently there are no legal restrictions as to what they can do with the data.

“If I could wave a magic wand, if I were emperor for a day--which I’ll never be--I would say this would be totally untraceable. We would never track that,” said Simon. “People, in my view, don’t want that.”

Simon says who you vote for will remain private but believes many people don’t want to risk their party affiliation becoming public.

“It is going to get out and people will know for what party you voted,” said State Sen. Jim Abeler, who is one of several lawmakers pushing to get the law changed by the time voters show up to the polls Tuesday.

“In my district, dozens of people have gone up to vote early and realized they had to record which party they’re voting for and turned and walked away,” Abeler said.

That’s why members of the house and senate are working quickly to get legislation passed before Tuesday that would limit where the names go and even allow you to opt out of being on a list.

With only days to go, however, voter privacy may have to wait until after primary ballots are cast.