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Committee Substitute House Bill 4137 History

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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted

WEST virginia legislature

2020 regular session

Committee Substitute

for

House Bill 4137

By Delegates Higginbotham, Hamrick, Barnhart, Hanna and Foster

[Referred to the Committee on Political Subdivisions.]


 

A BILL to amend and reenact §3-2-4, §3-2-5, and §3-2-29 of the Code of West Virginia,1931, as amended, relating to allowing counties to store and maintain voter registration records in a digital format; directing the clerk of the county commission to follow designated statutory record destruction process and digital copy creation requirements; providing that physical voter registration records may be destroyed under designated statutory process; and, providing that following approval of the Secretary of State the clerk of the county commission may destroy original registration records, if digital or facsimile copies are made and stored in an electronic format in a designated secure manner. 

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:


ARTICLE 2. REGISTRATION OF VOTERS.


§3-2-4. Authority and responsibility of the clerk of the county commission and of the county commission relating to voter registration.

(a) Subject to the authority of the Secretary of State, the clerk of the county commission shall be the chief registration authority in each respective county and all subdivisions therein, and shall supervise their deputies, employees, and registrars in the performance of their respective duties.

(b) The county commission of each county shall allocate sufficient resources for the proper and efficient performance of duties relating to voter registration as required by law, and shall provide for temporary clerical assistance necessary for systematic purging procedures or other duties of short duration required by the provisions of this article.

(c) The county commission shall have authority on its own motion to summon and examine any person concerning the registration of voters, to investigate any irregularities in registration, to summon and examine witnesses, to require the production of any relevant books and papers, and to conduct hearings on any matters relating to the registration of voters.

(d) The clerk of the county commission shall be responsible for the administration of voter registration within the county and shall establish procedures and practices which ensure the full implementation of the requirements of federal and state laws and rules relating to voter registration, and which ensure nondiscriminatory practices. The clerk of the county commission, at his or her discretion, may maintain and store all voter registration records in a digital format. Provided, That prior to destroying any physical voter registration records, the clerk of the county commission shall follow the records destruction process and digital copy creation requirements set forth in W.Va. Code § 3-2-29.


§3-2-5. Forms for application for registration; information required and requested; types of application forms; notices.


(a) (1) All state forms for application for voter registration shall be prescribed by the Secretary of State and shall conform with the requirements of 42 U. S. C.§1973gg, et seq., the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the requirements of the provisions of this article. Separate application forms may be prescribed for voter registration conducted by the clerk of the county commission, registration by mail, registration in conjunction with an application for motor vehicle driver’s license and registration at designated agencies. These forms may consist of one or more parts, may be combined with other forms for use in registration by designated agencies or in conjunction with driver licensing and may be revised and reissued as required by the Secretary of State to provide for the efficient administration of voter registration.

(2) Notwithstanding any provisions of subdivision (1) of this subsection to the contrary, the federal postcard application for voter registration issued pursuant to 42 U. S. C.§1973, et seq., the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986 and the mail voter registration application form prescribed by the Federal Election Commission pursuant to 42 U. S. C.§1973gg, et seq., the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, are accepted as valid forms of application for registration pursuant to the provisions of this article.

(3) The Secretary of State is authorized to promulgate procedures to permit persons to register to vote through a secure electronic voter registration system.

(b) Each application form for registration shall include:

(1) A statement specifying the eligibility requirements for registration and an attestation that the applicant meets each eligibility requirement;

(2) Any specific notice or notices required for a specific type or use of application by 42 U. S. C.§1973gg, et seq., the National Voter Registration Act of 1993;

(3) A notice that a voter may be permitted to vote the partisan primary election ballot of a political party only if the voter has designated that political party on the application for registration unless the political party has determined otherwise;

(4) The applicant’s driver’s license number or an identification number issued by the Division of Motor Vehicles. If the applicant does not have a driver’s license or an identification card issued by the Division of Motor Vehicles, then the last four digits of the applicant’s Social Security number; and

(5) Any other instructions or information essential to complete the application process.

(c) Each application form shall require that the following be provided by the applicant, under oath, and an application which does not contain each of the following is incomplete:

(1) The applicant’s legal name, including the first name, middle or premarital name, if any, and last name;

(2) The month, day, and year of the applicant’s birth;

(3) The applicant’s residence address including the number and street or route and city and county of residence except:

(A) In the case of a person eligible to register under the provisions of 42 U. S. C.§1973ff, et seq., the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, the address at which he or she last resided before leaving the United States or entering the uniformed services, or if a dependent child of such a person, the address at which his or her parent last resided;

(B) In the case of a homeless person having no fixed residence address who nevertheless resides and remains regularly within the county, the address of a shelter, assistance center or family member with whom he or she has regular contact or other specific location approved by the clerk of the county commission for the purposes of establishing a voting residence; or

(C) In the case of a participant in the Address Confidentiality Program administered by the Secretary of State in accordance with section one hundred three, article twenty-eight (a), chapter forty-eight of this code, the designated address assigned to the participant by the Secretary of State; and

(4) The applicant’s signature, under penalty of perjury as provided in section thirty-six of this article, to the attestation of eligibility to register to vote and to the truth of the information given. The clerk may accept the electronically transmitted signature kept on file with another approved state database for an applicant who applies to register to vote using an approved electronic voter registration system in accordance with procedures promulgated by the Secretary of State.

(d) The applicant shall be requested to provide the following information but no application may be rejected for lack of this information:

(1) An indication whether the application is for a new registration, change of address, change of name or change of party affiliation;

(2) The applicant’s choice of political party affiliation, if any, or an indication of no affiliation. An applicant who does not enter a choice of political party affiliation is listed as having no party affiliation on the voting record;

(3) The applicant’s residence mailing address if different than the residence street address;

(4) The last four digits of the applicant’s Social Security number;

(5) The applicant’s telephone number;

(6) The applicant’s e-mail address;

(7) The address where the applicant was last registered to vote, if any, for the purpose of cancelling or transferring the previous registration; and

(8) The applicant’s gender.

(e) The Secretary of State shall prescribe the printing specifications of each type of voter registration application and the voter registration application portion of any form which is part of a combined agency form: Provided, That any physical voter registration records created under this article may be destroyed under the process described in W.Va. Code § 3-2-29.

(f) Application forms prescribed in this section may refer to various public officials by title or official position but in no case may the actual name of an officeholder be printed on the voter registration application or on any portion of a combined application form.

(g) No later than July 1 of each odd-numbered year, the Secretary of State shall submit the specifications of the voter registration application by mail for statewide bidding for a contract period beginning September 1 of each odd-numbered year and continuing for two calendar years. The successful bidder shall produce and supply the required mail voter registration forms at the contract price to all purchasers of the form for the period of the contract.

§3-2-29. Custody of original registration records.


            (a) All original registration records in paper format shall remain in the custody of the county commission, by its clerk, or, electronically, in the statewide voter registration database and shall not be removed except for use in an election or by the order of a court of record or in compliance with a subpoena duces tecum issued by the Secretary of State pursuant to the provisions of section six, article one-a of this chapter.

(b) All original voter registration records shall be retained for a minimum of five years following the last recorded activity relating to the record, except that any application which duplicates and does not alter an existing registration shall be retained for a minimum of two years following its receipt: Provided, That following approval by the Secretary of State pursuant to subsection (c) of this section, the clerk of the county commission may destroy original registration records that have been retained for a period of time if an exact digital or facsimile copy of each of the records is made and stored in an electronic format in a secure manner on one or more servers under the control of the clerk of the county commission.  Digital or facsimile copies may include but are not limited to PDF or JPEG formats. The Secretary of State shall promulgate rules pursuant to the provisions of chapter twenty-nine-a of this code for the specific retention times and procedures required for original voter registration records.

(c) Prior to the destruction of original voter registration applications or registration cards of voters whose registration has been canceled at least five years previously, the clerk of the county commission shall notify the Secretary of State of the intention to destroy those records. If the Secretary of State determines, within ninety days of the receipt of the notice, that those records are of sufficient historical value that microfilm or other permanent data storage is desirable, the Secretary of State may require that the records be delivered to a specified location for processing at state expense.

(d) Active, inactive, pending, rejected, and canceled registration records shall be maintained as a permanent record, as follows:

(1) Individual canceled registration records shall be maintained in the statewide voter registration database for a period of at least five years following cancellation. Upon the expiration of five years, those individual records may be removed from the statewide voter registration database and disposed of in accordance with the appropriate document retention policy.

(2) Rejected registration records shall be maintained in the same manner as provided for cancelled registration records.


 

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow county voter registration records to be maintained and stored in a digital format.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

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