Legislature(1997 - 1998)
03/10/1998 08:00 AM House STA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 376 - LIMIT USE OF VOTER REGISTRATION INFO Number 0496 CHAIR JAMES announced the last order of business would be HB 376 "An Act limiting the use of voter registration information," sponsored by Representative Croft. REPRESENTATIVE ERIC CROFT came before the committee to explain the legislation. He informed the committee that Kenneth Brewster, a constituent of his, brought the issue of privacy of voter information to him. Representative Croft said when a person registers to vote, that person must give information about where they live. That makes sense as the Division of Elections has to put you in the right election district. Currently, there is no prohibition on the use of that information. It can be freely sold and used for commercial purposes. Representative Croft informed the committee that many states such Montana, Oregon and Washington don't think that's fair and say that there shouldn't be a commercial use of voter information. Representative Croft said if he didn't want the government to sell his name, the only real way to stop it is to not register to vote. He said instead of taking Montana's, Oregon's or Washington's approach, which simply says no commercial use of it, he talked to some of the people who are in this business. He said he spoke to Mr. Motznik about what would be a way to accommodate these legitimate concerns without unduly affecting his business or other businesses. Representative Croft said the response he got was a check box similar to the way the Division of Motor Vehicles handles their information. It is easy to include the information in modern data bases. If somebody complains and says, "I don't want this used for commercial purposes," you would simply note that and it doesn't go out in anything that is sold to commercial organizations. If people wish to stay on commercial lists, they can choose to do so. Representative Croft referred to the constitutional amendment on privacy and said it is not the most significant aspect the privacy provision will ever invoke, but he believes it is an important one. He said the privacy provision says that the right of privacy is recognized and the legislature shall implement it. He said, "We haven't done, in my opinion, a good job of over the years thinking about and implementing privacy. This, I think, is a small step in that direction." Representative Croft noted the fiscal note is about $5,000, which is an estimate by the Division of Elections of how much it would take to change their computer system to include the check box. Number 0549 REPRESENTATIVE CROFT pointed out that the bill provides that the information can still be used for legitimate governmental purposes such as legislators communicating with constituents, campaigns, et cetera. He explained that they tried to define it as things that are reasonably related to registering to vote. Representative Croft explained that Mr. Brewster wrote him a note asking why he was getting commercial mailings from Las Vegas casinos. He didn't want the mailings as they were a nuisance. Mr. Brewster called the mailing house who said they got the addresses off the voter list. When Mr. Brewster asked to be removed from the list, the mailing house said they couldn't or wouldn't do it. Representative Croft said we ought to have the ability to vote without compromising our ability to keep information we'd like private to stay private or to not have it commercially available. Number 0566 CHAIR JAMES said she sympathizes with the issue, but pointed out that the post office sells addresses. She said there are some good and bad commercial uses of names. Chair James said, "I can tell you that when the little slip came by from the Department of Motor Vehicles, when I really objected to people not being able to find people who, by looking at a license -- not being able to find out who owned the car, because I feel like driving on the road -- and I have a license to be there and I want to be sure everybody else does and if they do something that offends me, I want to know who they are. And so I wasn't supportive of that bill, but yet when the little slip came in the mail that says I have the opportunity to keep my name and address, I said 'Of course I don't want to give it to anybody else that doesn't need it.'" CHAIR JAMES explained how she sorts her mail for real mail and other mail. The other mail goes directly into the garbage and she doesn't even bother to look at it. She pointed out she has that option. She said every time we "crunch" down on things, we also eliminate some legitimate business interest out there. Chair James said, "I guess I'm more sensitive to this issue because it's voting than anything else and I think we should not put any deterrents for people to register as (indisc.) to vote." For that reason, she said she will support the legislation. Chair James said, "By the time we go through these lists of places where people have their names and addresses, it's not all bad guys that do this and I really resist in this country how we've passed laws constantly bringing us all down to the lowest common denominator where we are so tight that we can't even hardly move in our system and our economic systems are deprived." Number 0619 REPRESENTATIVE ELTON said he assumes that the state isn't profiting from the sale of the list. It's businesses like Motznik or others that are getting the list and then profit by selling the names on the voters registration list. REPRESENTATIVE CROFT said he assumes that also. He said, "We sell it for what's a low amount. They describe it as nominal. I've seen the number, I don't think it's big. I don't think we're making money off this. I think other people are." He pointed out that there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, we could encourage those types of business activities. Representative Croft said he thinks that Chair James is right in that voting is on a different plane and that you shouldn't discourage somebody who, for legitimate or other reasons, just doesn't want to give up that information. He stated that some people have legitimate reasons for not wanting to give out their address. Number 0636 CHAIR JAMES referred to legislators getting mailing labels of constituents. She said certainly that is a commercial activity. She asked if the bill would restrict that commercial activity for all those who said, "No, I don't want to be included." REPRESENTATIVE CROFT responded, "No, and we put at the very end, on page 3, lines 2 through 6, a list of what it could be used for. It does not include compiling, using, giving, receiving - all those, from a voter registration list information derived from a request by an applicant solely for law enforcement, political campaign, election or legitimate governmental purposes. So whether compiling it to make that use or doing that use directly, it wouldn't prohibit those." REPRESENTATIVE CROFT indicated there is a proposed amendment, A.1, Glover, that would help the Division of Elections phase this in. It does two things. Representative Croft explained the amendment changes the effective date to February 1, 1999. The Division of Elections requested that because they have a stack of forms and they have a small (indisc.) of an election to run this year. Rather than throw away a bunch of forms, they would rather phase this in. He noted after the word "campaign," the amendment also adds "public service groups." Representative Croft said, "We got into a discussion of what other groups, besides this, had a legitimate use on it. It seemed to me that mailings for political election or public organizing type of functions ought to be allowed. So that is what legislative drafting came up - to make sure that public service groups...." Number 0660 CHAIR JAMES interjected that a question that she has is what about the people who don't want this big pile of political campaign information to come to their mail box. REPRESENTATIVE CROFT said there has got to be a limit on this. He said it does seem to him that registering to vote logically entails getting some campaign stuff. It doesn't necessarily logically entail getting a bunch of other stuff. He said it seemed a logical place to draw the line. Number 0668 KENNETH BREWSTER testified via teleconference from Fairbanks. He noted he is temporarily in Fairbanks, but is actually a constituent of Representative Croft's. Mr. Brewster pointed out that it is true that everyone sells mailing lists, but most other mailing lists will put a note in their computer software to not sell your name and address to other mailing lists if you ask them to do so. Mr. Brewster said by doing that, over the last year he has drastically reduced the junk mail he was receiving. But when he received mailings from the Nevada gambling casinos, he called the marketing directors to find out where they got his address, they referred him to Speedy Mail in Anchorage. Mr. Brewster called Speedy Mail with his request to not sell his name and address, they told him they got their mailing list from the voter registration roles. He asked them to take his name off the list and they responded, "No, our software doesn't have that capability." He suggested they upgrade their software and the response he received was, "We don't have to, our software is approved by the postal service." MR. BREWSTER pointed out that he has to look at junk mail long enough to determine that it's not of interest to him before he throws it out. He said his time is too valuable to look through several pieces of junk mail every day and creates an annoyance to him. He stated that he doesn't want to be subjected to this. Number 0691 REPRESENTATIVE DYSON moved that amendment A.1 be adopted. Amendment A.1 follows: Page 1, line 1, following "information": Insert "; and providing for an effective date" Page 2, line 23, following "not": Insert "knowingly" Page 2, line 29: Delete "knowingly" Page 3, line 5, following "campaign,": Insert "public service." Page 3, following line 10: Insert a new bill section to read: "* Sec. 5. This Act takes effect February 1, 1999." CHAIR JAMES asked if there was an objection to the adoption of Amendment A.1. There being none, Amendment A.1 was adopted. Number 0697 REPRESENTATIVE DYSON made a motion to move HB 376, as amended, out of committee with individual recommendations and with the attached fiscal note. CHAIR JAMES asked if there was an objection. There being none, CSHB 376(STA) moved out of the House State Affairs Standing Committee.
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