Senate Bill No. 496
(By Senators Kessler, Oliverio, White, McKenzie and Plymale)
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[Introduced January 30, 2008; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §3-2-30 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the protection of certain
information maintained in voter registration files.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §3-2-30 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. REGISTRATION OF VOTERS.
§3-2-30. Public inspection of voter registration records in the
office of the clerk of the county commission; providing
voter lists for noncommercial use; prohibition against
resale of voter lists for commercial use or profit.
(a) The active, inactive, rejected and canceled voter
registration records shall be made available for public inspection
during office hours of the clerk of the county commission in
accordance with the provisions of chapter twenty-nine-b of this
code as follows:
(1) When the active and inactive files are maintained on precinct registration books, any person shall be allowed to examine
these files under the supervision of the clerk and obtain copies of
records except when a precinct book is in temporary use for
updating and preparing lists or during the time the books are
sealed for use in an election. Other original voter registration
records, including canceled voter records, pending applications,
rejected applications, records of change requests, reinstatements
and other documents, shall be available for inspection upon
specific request;
and
(2) When the active, inactive, rejected and canceled voter
files are maintained in data format, any person shall be allowed to
examine voter record information in printed form or in a read-only
data format on a computer terminal set aside for public use, if
available. The data files available shall include all registration
and voting information maintained in the file, except that the
telephone number,
and social security number
and driver's license
number or nonoperator's number, as issued by the Division of Motor
Vehicles, of any voter shall not be available for inspection or
copying in any format.
(b) Printed lists of registered voters may be purchased for
noncommercial use from the clerk of the county commission at a cost
of one cent per name.
(c) In counties maintaining active and inactive files in
digitized data format, the clerk of the county commission shall,
upon request, prepare printed copies of the lists of voters for
each precinct. No list prepared under this section may include the telephone number or social security number of the registrant. The
clerk shall establish a written policy, which shall be posted
within public view, listing the options which may be requested for
selection and sorting criteria and available data elements, which
shall include at least the name, residence address, political party
affiliation and status and the format of the lists and the times at
which lists will be prepared. A copy of the policy shall be filed
with the Secretary of State no later than the first day of January
of each even-numbered year.
(d) In counties which maintain voter files in a digitized data
format, lists of registered voters may be obtained for
noncommercial purposes in data format on disk provided and prepared
by the clerk of the county commission at a cost of one cent per
name plus ten dollars for each disk required. No data file
prepared under this subsection may include the telephone number or
social security number of the registrant.
(e) The fees received by the clerk of the county commission
shall be kept in a separate fund under the supervision of the clerk
for the purpose of defraying the cost of the preparation of the
voter lists. Any unexpended balance in the fund shall be
transferred to the General Fund of the county commission.
(f) The Secretary of State may make voter lists available for
sale subject to the limitations as provided in this section for
counties. The cost for a partial list shall be one and one-half
cents per name plus ten dollars for each disk required; the cost
for a complete statewide list shall be one-half cent per name and a flat fee of one thousand dollars. One cent per name for each
voter from a particular county on each partial list, and one-half
cent per name for each voter from a particular county on each
statewide list sold shall be reimbursed to the appropriate county.
The disk fee and one-half cent per name associated with a partial
list and the flat fee of one thousand dollars associated with a
complete statewide list shall be deposited to a special revenue
account for purpose of defraying the cost of the preparation of the
lists.
(g) An update to a previously purchased list may be provided
by the Secretary of State or the clerk of the county commission at
a prorated cost based on the amount of additional information
provided. The additional rates charged by the clerk of the county
commission shall be specified in the policy established pursuant to
subsection (c) of this section.
(h) No voter registration lists or data files containing the
names, addresses or other information relating to voters derived
from voter data files obtained pursuant to the provisions of this
article may be used for commercial or charitable solicitations or
advertising, sold or reproduced for resale.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to protect information
maintained in the voter registration.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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