An Act To Improve Access to Data in the Central Voter Registration System Silbmitted by the Secretary of State pursuant to Joint Rule 204.
Maine Legislature, Session 124, LD 1627
Committee: Legaland Veterans Affairs
Sponsors: SULLIVAN, JACKSON
Amends: 21-A MRSA §22, 21-A MRSA §192, 21-A MRSA §193, 21-A MRSA §195, 21-A MRSA §196-A

MAINE STATE LEGISLATURE 
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124th MAl E LEGISLATURE 
Legislative Document 
No. 1627 
H.P. 1155 
House of Representatives, December 23,2009 
An Act To Improve Access to Data in the Central Voter Registration 
System 
Silbmitted by the Secretary of State pursuant to Joint Rule 204. 
Received by the Clerk of the House on December 21,2009. Referred to the Committee on 
Legaland Veterans Affairs pursuant to Joint Rule 30~.2 and ord\'1red printed pursuant to Joint 
Rule 401. 
Presented by Representati ve TRINW ARD of Waterville. 
Cosponsored by Senator SULLIVAN of York and 
Senator: JACKSON of Aroostook. 
Printed on l'ecyclcJ pilpl!r 
I14g~ /J1.17ltU~{ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 21-A MRSA §22, sub-§3,' ,o,as enacted by PL 2005, c. 568, §2, is 
amended to read: 
B. For a voter who submits to the registrar a signed statement that the voter has a 
good reason to believe that the physical safety of the vqter or a member of the voter's 
immediate family residing with the voter would be, jeopardized if the voter's 
residence address were open to public inspection; that voter's residence address and 
mailing address, if the mailing address is the same as or discloses the voter's 
residence address, must be kept confidential and must be excluded from public 
inspection. The remainder of the information in that voter's record that is designated 
as public information in section +96 196-A remains a public record and may be made 
available to the public according to the use and distribution requirements provided in 
that section. The voter's ~igned statement is also a public record. A voter's' address 
that is excluded from public in pection under this paragraph may be made available 
free of charge to a law enforce !lent officer or law enforcement agency that makes a 
written request t6 use the inforr.tation for a bona fide law enforcement purpose or toa 
person identified by a court order if directed by that order. 
Sec. 2. 21-A MRS A §191, as amended by PL 2005, c. 364, §6; c. 453, §40; and c. 
683, Pt. A, §§31 and 32, is repealed. 
Sec. 3. 21-A MRSA §192, as amended by PL 2005, c. 12, Pt. SS, §21 and c. 453, 
§41, is repealed. 
Sec. 4. 21-A MRSA §193, as amended byPL 2005, c. 453, §42, is repealed. 
Sec. 5. 21-A MRS A §194, as amended by PL 2005, c. 453, §43, is further 
amended to read:' . 
§194. Rules 
The Secretary of State may adopt rules regarding implementation and administration 
of a central voter registration system to determine the pricing, accessibility and 
availability of inforrnation contained in the database and the appropriate use and resale of 
that information; to establish a plan to implement the system in stages for all municipal 
jurisdictions; and to identify additional system features or voter' information to be 
included in the system or provide for the confidentiality of certain personal information 
or limitations on the use and distribution of that information; arid to establish a system to 
identifv duolicate records. includinl! establishment of a voter identification indicator. 
. Rules adopted pursuant to this section are major substantive rules as defined in Title 
5, chapter 375, subchapter II--A 2-A. 
Sec. 6. 21-A MRSA §195, as amended by PL 2007, c. 397, § 1, is further amended 
to read: 
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§ 195. Report 
The Secretary of State shall report' annually, by ~4arch 1st January 15th, to the joint 
standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over voter registration ,matters 
on the administration of the central voter registration system developed pursuant to this 
subchapter. The report may' include address issues of pubiic access to the information 
from the central voter registration system, taking into consideration the compelling state 
interests to prevent voter fraud and the potential disenfranchisement of voters and to 
ensure that voters are not discouraged from participating in the voting process. The 
report may include' suggested' legislation necessary to administer the central voter 
registration system. The committee may report out legislation regarding the central voter 
registration system to the Legislature durin!! the First Re!!ular Session of the 121 st ' 
Lellislature and an',' subseouent Lellislature. 
Sec. 7. 21-AMRSA §196, as amended by PL 2009, c. 370, §§4 and 5, is repealed. 
Sec. 8. 21-A MRSA §196-A is enacted to read: 
§196-A. Use and distribution of central voter registration system information 
1. ' Access to data from the central voter registration system. Foi' the purposes of 
Title 1, section 402, information contained electronically in the central voter registration 
system and any information or reports generated by the system are confidential and may 
be accessed only by municipal and state election officials for the purposes of election and 
voter registration administration, and by others only as provided in this section. 
A. An individual voter may obtain any information contained in that voter's record 
within the central voter registration system either from the registrar in the voter's 
municipality of residence or from the Secretary of State. 
The individual voter 
information must be made available to that voter upon request and free of charge. The 
Secretary of State may design a report to facilitate providing information to an 
individual voter. 
B. A political party, individual or organization engaged in so-called "get out the 
vote" efforts or activities directly related to a campaign may purchase a list or report 
of celiain voter information from the central voter registration system by makihg a 
request to the Secretary of State or to a registrar if the information requested concerns ' 
voters in that municipality. The Secretary of State or the, registrar shall make 
available the following voter record information, subject to the fees set forth in 
subsection 2: 
the voter's name,' residence address, mailing address, date of birth, 
enrollment status, electoral districts, voter status, date of registration, date of change 
of the voter record if applicable, voter participation history, voter record number and 
any special designations indicating uniformed service voters, overseas voters or 
township voters. 
Any person obtaining" either directly or indirectly, information 
from the central voter registration system under this paragraph may not sell, distribute 
or use the data for any purpose that is not directly related to activities of a political 
party, "get out the vote" effOIis or activities directly related to a campaign. This 
paragraph does 110t prohibit political parties, party committees, candidate committees, 
political action committees or' any other organizations that have purchased 
information from the central voter registration system from providing access to such 
information to their members for purposes directly related to party activities, "get out 
the vote" efforts or a campaign. For purposes of this paragraph, "campaign" has the 
same meaning as in section 1052, subsection ·1. 
c. The registrar shall make available, in electronic form and free of charge, upon the 
request of any person authorized under section 312 to obtain a municipal caucus list, 
the following voter record information for each voter in the municipality: the voter's 
. name, residence address, mailing address, enrollment status, electoral districts, voter 
status, voter record number and any special designation indicating whether the voter 
is a uniformed service voter, overseas voter or township voter. The Secretary of State 
also shall make available the statewide caucus list, in electronic form and free of 
charge, to the state committee of each political party. 
D .. A municipal clerk or registrar shall make available to any person upon request 
and free of charge an electronic ,list of voters who requested or were furnished 
absentee ballots for their municipality for a specified election. The Secretary of State 
may make available free of charge the statewide absentee voter list in electronic 
form. The electronic list must include the information provided in section 753-B, 
subsection 6, paragraph A, except that the voter's record number must be provided 
instead of the voter's name and residence address. In addition, a mimicij:>al clerk or 
registrar shall make available upon request, subject to the fees set forth in subsection 
2, paragraph A, 'the printed list, created and maintained pursuant to section 753-B,of 
voters who requested or were furnished absentee ballots. 
E. The Secretary of State or a registrar may make available, upon the request of any 
,other governmental or quasi-governmental entity, certain voter. information for that 
entity's authorized use only. 
The following information may be' provided in 
electronic form and free of charge: the voter's name, residence address, mailing 
address, electoral districts, voter status, date of registration or date of change of the 
voter record if applicable, voter record number and any special designations 
indicating uniformed service voters, overseas voters or township voters. Data made 
available under this paragraph may not be used for solicitation or for purposes other 
than the governmental or quasi-governmental entity's authorized activities and may 
not be redistributed . 
. F. The Secretary of State shall make available to any person upon request and free of 
charge the following voter record information in electronic form: either the voter's 
first name or last name, but not both 'names in the same report; year of birth; 
enrollment status; electoral districts to include congressional district and county only; 
voter status; date of registration or date of change of the voter record if applicable; 
date of the last statewide election in which the voter voted; and any special 
designations indicating uniformed service voters, overseas voters or township voters. 
The Secretary of State or the registrar also may make available to any person upon 
request and free of charge any report or statistical information that does not contain' 
the names, dates of birth, voter record' numbers or addresses of individual voters. 
G. The Secretary of State or a registrar shall make available free of charge any 
information pertaining to individual voters, other than participants in the Address 
Confidentiality Program established in Title 5, section 90-B, that is contained in the 
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central voter registration system to a law enforcement officer or law enforcement 
agency that makes a written' request to use the information for a bona fide law 
enforcement purpose or to a person identified by a court order if directed by that 
order. Information pertaining to individual v'oters who are Address Confidentiality 
Program participants that is contained in the central voter registration system may be 
made available for inspection to a law enforcement agency that is authorized by the 
Secretary of State pursuant to Title 5; section 90-B to obtain Address Confidentiality 
Program infonnation. Data made available under this paragraph may not be used for 
purposes other than law enforcement or as directed in the court order. 
H. ' When responding to a request about a specific voter registered in a specific 
municipality, the registrar of that municipality or the Secretary of State may use 
information contained in the central voter registration system to provide the 
registration status, enrollment status and electoral districts for that voter. 
2. 
Fees. 
For the purpose of calculating fees pursuant to this section, a record 
includes the information on one individual voter. Fees paid to the Secretary of State must 
be deposited into a dedicated fund to offset the cost of providing the information and 
maintaining the central voter registration system. A municipality may keep the fees paid 
to the municipality. The fees for information provided pursuant to this section are as 
follows: 
A. The fee for information provided in printed form is $1 for the first page and 2S¢ 
per p'age for all additional pages, except that the fee for additional pages of mailing 
labels is 75¢ per page; and' 
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B. The fee for information provided in electronic form is based on the number of . 
records requested.. The fee entitles the requestor to receive the initial electronic 
report or file and, upon request, up to 11 updates free of charge during the subsequent 
12-month period, except that no more than one tree update may be requested during 
any 30-day period. The fee schedule is as follows: 
(1) For 900,001 or more voter records, $2,000; 
(2) For 600,001 to 900,000 voter records" $1,500; 
(3) For 400,001 to 600,000 voter records, $1,000;' 
(4) For 250,001 to 400,000 ,voter records, $750; 
(5) For 150,001 to 250,000 voter records, $500; 
(6) For 100,001 to 150,000 voter records, $250; 
(7) For 75,001 to 100,000 voter records, $200; 
(8) For 50,001 to 75,000 voterrecords, $165; 
(9) For 35,001 to 50,000 voter records, $125; 
(10) For 2?,001 to 35,000 voter records, $75; 
(1]) For 15,001 to 25,000 voter records, $50; 
(12) For 7,501 to 15,000 voterrecords, $30; 
(3) For 1,001 to 7,500 voter records, $20; or 
(14) For 1 to 1,000 voter records, $10. 
3. Response to requests. Municipal clerks, registrars and the Secretary of State's 
office shall respond to all requests for information from the central voter registration 
system pursuant to this sectiori within 5 business days of receipt of a written request and 
upon payment of any applicable fee. A municipal clerk or registrar may provide only 
information concerning voters registered within that municipal jurisdiction. The Secretary 
of State may design a form to be used for all requests for information or lists from the 
central voter registration system. 
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Sec. 9 .. 21 .. A MRSA §312, as amended by PL' 2005, c. 453, §45, is further 
amended to read: 
§312. Municipal caucus list 
The chair or secretary of the municipal committee or the person or persons calling a 
biennial muniCipal caucus, including any resident voter pursuant to section 311, 
subsection 5, may request from the municipal registrar and receive at no charge a 
certified copy of a list of voters registered in that municipality a list of registered voters 
purs~ant to section 196-A, subsection 1 for use by the municipal committee once each 
biennial election cycle beginning January 1 st in an election year. . Upon receipt of a 
request, the registrar has 5 business days to prepare and provide the municipal caucus list 
to the requester. The municipal· caucus list may include only the following information 
for each voter: name, residence address, mailing address, enrollment status, electoral 
district, voter status as active or inactive, voter record number and any special designation 
indicating ..... heth~r the voter is a uniformed service voter, overseas voter or tmvnship 
"fflter.: 
Sec. to. ApplicatioJrn. This Act does not apply to any requests for information 
from the central voter registration system submitted to a municipal registrar or to. the 
Secretary of State prior to the effective date Of this Act, except that any person or entity 
that has requested information from the central voter registration system in electronic 
form with in 12 mon!hs prior to the effective date of th is Act and that has paid the fees 
required under the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 21-A, former section 196, subsection 4 
may obtain free monthly updates of the data for the remainder of the 12-month period, 
upon request. 
SUMMARY 
This bill repeals several provisions of law relating to the implementation of a central 
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voter registration system. The bill removes the provision oflaw that would have repealed 
laws governing the use and distribution of central voter registration system information 
and clarifies the restrictions on access to data from the central voter registration system, 
enhances access to votet data by governmental or quasi-governmental entities [or 
authorized purposes other than solicitations and improves access to absentee voter data 
and statistical data. The bill provides that individuals or entities that purchase voter data 
electronically are entitled to receive up to 11 free updates to the data in a one-year period, 
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but not more frequently than one update in any 3D-day. period. The bill also moves the 
provisions of law regarding the biennial municipal caucus list into the section of law 
governing access to data from the central voter registration system.