H. B. 203
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Thompson, and Delegate Armstead)
[By Request of the Executive]
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[Introduced August 19, 2007; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §3-1D-1, §3-1D-2, §3-
1D-3, §3-1D-4, §3-1D-5, §3-1D-6, §3-1D-7, §3-1D-8, §3-1D-9 and
§3-
1D-10, all relating to the creation and implementation of
the Address Confidentiality Program; providing for
administration by the Secretary of State; providing address
confidentiality for victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault,
or stalking; providing eligibility and application
requirements for participation in program; requiring contents
of an application be kept confidential; establishing a process
for certification of applicants as program participants;
providing for cancellation of a participant's certification;
providing for use of a designated confidential address; allowing disclosure of actual residential or mailing address
under certain circumstances; establishing criminal penalties
for the filing of false information or breaching the program's
confidentiality; limiting the Secretary of State's liability;
and requiring the Secretary of State propose legislative and
emergency rules.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article designated §3-1D-1, §3-1D-2, §3-1D-
3, §3-1D-4, §3-1D-5, §3-1D-6, §3-1D-7, §3-1D-8, §3-1D-9 and §3-1D-
10, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1D. ADDRESS CONFIDENTIALITY PROGRAM.
§3-1D-1. Purpose.
The Legislature finds that persons attempting to escape from
actual or threatened domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking
frequently find it necessary to establish a new address in order to
prevent their assailants or probable assailants from finding them.
The purpose of this article is to enable state and local agencies
to respond to requests for public records without disclosing the
location of a victim of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or
stalking; to enable interagency cooperation with the Secretary of
State in providing address confidentiality for victims of domestic
abuse, sexual assault, or stalking; and to enable state and local
agencies to accept an address designated by the Secretary of State
by a program participant as a substitute for a residential or mailing address.
§3-1D-2. Definitions.
As used in this section, unless the context otherwise
indicates, the following terms have the following meanings.
(1) "Application assistant" means an employee of a state or
local agency, or of a nonprofit program that provides counseling,
referral, shelter or other specialized service to victims of
domestic abuse, rape, sexual assault or stalking, and who has been
designated by the respective agency, and trained, accepted and
registered by the Secretary of State to assist individuals in the
completion of program participation applications.
(2) "Designated address" means the address assigned to a
program participant by the Secretary of State pursuant to section
three of this article.
(3) "Mailing address" means an address that is recognized for
delivery by the United States Postal Service.
(4) "Program" means the Address Confidentiality Program
established by this article.
(5) "Program participant" means a person certified by the
Secretary of State to participate in the program.
(6) "Residential Address" means a residential street, school
or work address of an individual, as specified on the individual's
application to be a program participant under this article.
§3-1D-3. Address Confidentiality Program.
(a) On or after the effective date of the enactment of this article, the Secretary of State shall create an Address
Confidentiality Program to be staffed by full time employees who
have been subjected to a criminal history records search.
(b) Upon recommendation of an application assistant, an adult
person, a parent or guardian acting on behalf of a minor, or a
guardian acting on behalf of an incapacitated person may apply to
the Secretary of State to have a designated address assigned by the
Secretary of State.
(c) The Secretary of State may approve an application only if
it is filed with the office of the Secretary of State in the manner
established by rule and on a form prescribed by the Secretary of
State. A completed application must contain the following
information:
(1) The application preparation date, the applicant's
signature and the signature and registration number of the
application assistant who assisted the applicant in applying to be
a program participant;
(2) A designation of the Secretary of State as agent for
purposes of service of process and for receipt of certain first-
class mail pieces;
(3) The mailing address where the applicant may be contacted
by the Secretary of State or a designee and the telephone number or
numbers where the applicant may be contacted by the Secretary of
State or the Secretary of State's designee; and
(4) One or more residential and/or mailing addresses that the applicant requests not be disclosed for the reason that disclosure
will jeopardize the applicant's safety or increase the risk of
violence to the applicant or members of the applicant's household.
(d) Upon receipt of a properly completed application, the
Secretary of State may certify the applicant as a program
participant. A program participant is certified for a period of
four years following the date of initial certification unless the
certification is withdrawn or invalidated before that date. The
Secretary of State shall send notification of a lapsing
certification and a reapplication form to a program participant at
least four weeks prior to the expiration of the program
participant's certification.
(e) The Secretary of State shall forward to the program
participant first-class mail received at the program participant's
designated address.
(f)(1) An applicant may not file an application knowing that
it:
(A) Contains false or incorrect information; or
(B) Falsely claims that disclosure of the applicant's
residential and/or mailing address threatens the safety of the
applicant or the applicant's children or the minor or incapacitated
person on whose behalf the application is made.
(2) An application assistant may not assist or participate in
the filing of an application that the application assistant knows:
(A) Contains false or incorrect information; or
(B) Falsely claims that disclosure of the applicant's
residential and/or mailing address threatens the safety of the
applicant or the applicant's children or the minor or incapacitated
person on whose behalf the application is made.
(g) A person who violates the provisions of subsection (f) of
this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction
thereof, shall be confined in jail for a period of not more than
one year.
§3-1D-4. Cancellation.
Certification for the program may be canceled if one or more
of the following conditions apply:
(1) If the program participant obtains a name change, unless
the program participant provides the Secretary of State with
documentation of a legal name change within ten business days of
the name change;
(2) If there is a change in the residential address of the
program participant from the one listed on the application, unless
the program participant provides the Secretary of State with notice
of the change in a manner prescribed by the Secretary of State; or
(3) The applicant or program participant violates subsection
(f), section three of this article.
§3-1D-5. Use of designated address.
(a) Upon demonstration of a program participant's
certification in the program, state and local agencies and the
courts of this state shall accept the designated address as a program participant's address for the purposes of creating a new
public record unless the Secretary of State has determined that:
(1) The agency or court has a bona fide statutory or
administrative requirement for the use of the program participant's
residential or mailing address, such that the agency or court is
unable to fulfill its statutory duties and obligations without the
program participant's residential or mailing address; and
(2) The program participant's residential or mailing address
will be used only for those statutory and administrative purposes,
and shall be kept confidential, subject to the confidentiality
provisions as provided in section eight of this article.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) and upon
the request of the Secretary of State, the division of motor
vehicles shall use the designated address for the purposes of
issuing a driver's license or identification card:
Provided, That
the division of motor vehicles shall not be prohibited from
collecting and retaining a program participant's residential and/or
mailing address to be used only for statutory and administrative
purposes. A program participant's residential and/or mailing
address collected and retained pursuant to this subsection shall be
kept confidential, subject to the provisions of section eight of
this article.
(c) A designated address may be a post office box and may be
used by a participant for voter registration purposes, as long as
the Secretary of State has on file for this participant a residential and mailing address, as provided in section three of
this article.
§3-1D-6. Disclosure to law enforcement and state agencies.
(a) The Secretary of State may make a program participant's
residential or mailing address available for inspection or copying,
under the following circumstances:
(1) Upon request of a law enforcement agency in the manner
provided for by rule; or
(2) Upon request of the head of a state agency or designee in
the manner provided for by rule and upon a showing of a bona fide
statutory or administrative requirement for the use of the program
participant's residential or mailing address, such that the agency
head or designee is unable to fulfill statutory duties and
obligations without the program participant's address or mailing
address.
§3-1D-7. Disclosure pursuant to court order or canceled
certification.
(a) The Secretary of State shall make a program participant's
residential and/or mailing address available for inspection or
copying to a person identified in a court order, upon receipt of a
certified court order that specifically requires the disclosure of
a particular program participant's residential and/or mailing
address and the reasons for the disclosure; or
(b) The Secretary of State may make a program participant's
residential and/or mailing address available for inspection or copying if the program applicant or participant's certification has
been canceled because the applicant or program participant has
violated subsection (f), section three of this article.
§3-1D-8. Confidentiality.
A program participant's application and supporting materials
are not a public record and must be kept confidential by the
Secretary of State. Any employee of any agency or court who
willfully breaches the confidentiality of these records or
willfully discloses the name or residential and/or mailing address
of a program participant in violation of the provisions of this
article, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction
thereof, shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars nor more
than one thousand dollars or confined in jail not more than one
year, or both fined and confined.
§3-1D-9. Secretary of state; liability.
This article creates no liability upon the Secretary of State for any
transaction compromised by any illegal act or inappropriate uses associated with
this
article.
§3-1D-10. Rules.
The Secretary of State is hereby directed to propose
legislative rules and emergency rules implementing the provisions
of this article in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to created the Address
Confidentiality Program in the office of the Secretary of State.
§3-1D-1, §3-1D-2, §3-1D-3, §3-1D-4, §3-1D-5, §3-1D-6, §3-1D-7,
§3-1D-8, §3-1D-9, and §3-1D-10 are new, therefore, strike-throughs
and underscoring have been omitted.
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