NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- As Nashville tries to figure out what to do after 337,000 Social Security numbers were stolen from offices of the election commission, members of the public are calling the theft preventable.

Click Here: Letter Sent To Public After Davison Co. Election Laptop Theft (pdf) | Video

Joe Irrera’s job is a software designer and network administrator who knows how to protect customer information at his business.

He's also a member of the organization, Votesafe.org, and said that the election commission did just about everything wrong.

"No. 1, as a system administrator you never put the database on a laptop computer. Basically you put it on a server in a locked room and you connect to that database, through that laptop, with a hardened password," said Irrera.

Even if a computer user left sensitive information on a laptop, it should have a hardened password with uppercase and lowercase numbers that changes every 60 days.

And that data should be encrypted like on sites such as Amazon.com.

Encryption basically means once the user buys something on their Web site, the data gets mathematically scrambled into jibberish to outside eyes.

And if you're sitting at home happy that you don't live in Davidson County, voters have to still wonder where their information is stored.

"What's happening is counties like Clay County, Jackson County where they don't have their own full-time election people," said Irrera.

Channel 4 asked local counties about the security procedures.

Williamson County said their information is encrypted and never placed on laptops.

Sumner County has no encryption, just password protections, but the information stays on the main computer.

Marshall County said they don't know anything about encryption, but users do need a password to access their computers.

Fentress County has motion detectors in its office that protects its two computers in its main office. They do not have laptops.

Some of the public question if Metro would have said something similar to the other counties a week ago and not that they leave voter information on laptops left lying on the desks of closed offices.

Now that the theft happened, Irrera feels the response has been way too slow.

"Think about that. Where are the standards? Why was this test being conducted without the state election coordinator knowing what's going on, and how much of this testing is going on in other counties as we speak, and what steps are they taking?" said Irrera.

What Votesafe.org is saying in the big picture is that there are no standards, rules or guide lines for counties that hold the public’s personal information.

Identity theft and voter fraud are all possible because election officials are doing the job of computer administrators.

Votesafe.org is extremely worried about the integrity of the next election. They are worried that the thieves may be able to program the electronic ballot and actually change the way people voted.