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It has been reported that Russia penetrated US voter registration rolls.
From what I understand, the databases only contain information on who is registered to vote, and it seems that Russia only read data, but did not remove or add voters.
It seems that Russia wouldn't gain much by getting this data. Do registration rolls contain more sensitive data which could be used to influence elections or voters? Or are there other ramifications from accessing this data?
The only registration rolls that I can speak to contain name, addresses, voting precinct, date of birth, sometimes drivers license numbers, original registration and re-registration date, party affiliation, complete voting history for the past 5 years,including what party primary the voter voted in.
That said, My impression is that the concern is not necessarily the data (in some states this data is publicly available), but rather that an outside agency maybe able to alter the data. If voters are removed from the electronic rolls by "outsiders" it would cause voters to have to cast provisional ballots. If a voters precinct is changed by an "outsider", both the voter may have to go to a different polling place.
So, the concern is not necessarily what the "outsiders" can learn from the data or use the data, the concern is the ability to corrupt the voter registration data.
This answer largely depends on your state. However I imagine much of the information is similar.
In my state, the rolls contain information such as name, date registered, party affiliation, date of birth, current address, first date of election eligibility, previous addresses I was registered to vote, and voting history (ie. which past elections you have voted in, the ward and district you voted in, and the method of voting, such as I person or vote by mail or provisional ballot).
There is additionally some non-public information held; I believe it is license ID numbers or social security numbers (both used by the state to verify the person is who they claim to be). These numbers are not generally accessible to anyone.
If you are interested in finding out more, you can probably submit a public records request for your records in your state.
To the extent that Russia has a mass media with global reach, any foreign demographic data can be useful for marketing products internationally. When the products are American politicians that favor Russian interests, such voter roll data could be very useful, especially if correlated with other forms of big data.
For example, Russian web brigades can use such data to more accurately target propaganda, making a given campaign more likely to go viral.
