Information on Chicago voters publicly accessible for a time

CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago election officials say a file containing the names, addresses, dates of birth and other information about the city's 1.8 million registered voters was published online.

The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners revealed Thursday the information uploaded to Amazon Web Services was publicly accessible for an unknown period, but has been secured.

The Chicago Tribune reports the files had been uploaded by Election Systems & Software, a contractor that helps maintain Chicago's electronic poll books. A data security researcher alerted officials to the existence of the unsecured files on Saturday.

Election Systems reported in a statement it had "promptly secured" the files Saturday evening and has launched "a full investigation."

Elections board spokesman Jim Allen says the board is considering how to notify and potentially offer remedies to those whose information was exposed.