Sound Transit Improperly Sent 173,000 ORCA Card Users' Info to Political Campaign

Mass Transit

Aug. 20--Sound Transit improperly gave the email addresses of nearly 173,000 ORCA cardholders to the political campaign promoting ST3, the fall ballot measure seeking to expand regional mass transit, a spokesman for the transit agency acknowledged Friday.

The distribution of the transit passholders' email addresses was a mistake made as part of Sound Transit's response to the Mass Transit Now! campaign's recent public-disclosure requests for the transit agency's email subscribers' lists, Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick said.

"It turns out our response to the campaign was more broadly construed than it should have been," said Patrick.

Sound Transit's acknowledgment of the email release, which may be illegal, came after The Seattle Times raised questions this week. An ORCA cardholder had contacted The Times about an ST3 campaign email he received through an email address he said he uses exclusively with his ORCA account.

(ORCA is the contactless fare card for Seattle-area transit systems)