CHAPTER 72

(HB 1006)

Voter registration files, procedures to update revised.

         ENTITLED, An Act to  revise the procedure for updating the voter registration file and to limit the use of the county voter registration file.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:

     Section  1.  That § 12-4-18 be amended to read as follows:

     12-4-18.   The Department of Health, in conjunction with preparation of abstracts of vital statistics records made pursuant to §   34-25-46, shall , on a monthly basis, prepare an abstract for the county auditor, listing names and addresses of voters who have been residents of that county and have died.

     The register of deeds shall deliver a list of the names and addresses of all persons who have died and whose death certificates burial permits were filed in the office during the previous month to the county auditor of the decedent's county of residency by the tenth day of each month.

     The clerk of courts shall, within fifteen days after the close of each month, prepare and deliver to the auditor an abstract from the records of the names of persons declared mentally incompetent, convicted, and sentenced to the adult state penitentiary system for a felony, or for whom an application or petition for probate is filed, in the preceding month. The clerk of courts shall give notice in of all felony cases including those sentenced to probation sentences to the adult state

penitentiary system including a suspended execution of a sentence . The notice shall be sent to the county auditor of the county in which the person declared incompetent or convicted resides. The county auditor shall remove from the master registration list the names of persons identified in accordance with the information provided pursuant to this section and names of those sentenced to imprisonment in the federal penitentiary system and may remove names published in an obituary.

     Section  2.  That § 12-4-19 be amended to read as follows:

     12-4-19.   The name of any Any voter on the active registration list who has failed to vote, has not updated the voter's registration information, and has not replied to a confirmation mailing at least once during the last preceding four consecutive years shall be sent a nonforwardable return-if-undeliverable address verification request or the name of the voter may be submitted to a national change of address licensee of the United States Postal Service to determine if the voter's address has changed . If the request is undeliverable or the national change of address licensee indicates that the voter's address has changed, then a confirmation mailing prescribed by the State Board of Elections shall be sent. If a county auditor has determined through a national change of address licensee of the United States Postal Service that the address of a voter who is to be sent an address verification request has changed, that mailing may be omitted. This determination process shall be made performed by each county auditor between January first and November fifteenth of each odd-numbered year.

     Section  3.  That § 12-4-41 be amended to read as follows:

     12-4-41.   No information obtained from the statewide voter registration file or any county voter registration file may be used or sold for any commercial purpose. For the purpose of this section, the term, commercial purpose, does not include campaign or political polling activities. Any violation of this section is a Class 2 misdemeanor.

     Signed January 28, 2002.

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