Virginia political operatives can continue to use voters’ personal information to try to shame them into casting a ballot, despite a lawmaker’s effort to ban a practice he described as invasive and inappropriate.

The Democratic Party of Virginia angered some of its own voters last year with mailers, styled as “voter report cards,” that included the recipient’s name and compared their voting history with their neighbors, implying people who don’t regularly participate in elections could be publicly outed as civically negligent.

Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, told the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee Tuesday he was “a little bit shocked” to see a mailer comparing his daughter’s voting history to others in his neighborhood.

“You cannot take voter file information and put people on blast,” Petersen said. “I think that’s just common sense.”

But the committee didn’t see Petersen’s proposal as a common-sense fix, rejecting it in a 6-9 vote.

Candidates and political parties can purchase a voter file from the Virginia Department of Elections that shows whether a person participated in primary and general elections in the last four years. Campaigns can use that information, which does not reveal how a person voted, to target voters based on which party primaries they participate in and how active they are.

Despite the failure of the proposed ban, a DPVA spokesman said the party will be more thoughtful about mailings going forward.

“We understand the intent and rationale behind Senator Petersen’s bill and appreciate him for working with us and our staff,” said DPVA communications director Jayce Genco. “While the Democratic Party of Virginia is committed to using every tool in our arsenal to win elections, including publicly available information, we do intend to be more intentional when utilizing mail pieces so it has the intended impact.”

(Editor’s Note: This article was first published in the Virginia Mercury)