Changes to Existing Law

The secretary of state shall establish and maintain a rolling five-year historical archive of the complete statewide voter registration file, including the weekly updates published by the secretary pursuant to this section. 33 The information contained in or the historical archive of the statewide voter registration file must be made available free of charge, to an individual who: (1) Is registered as a voter of this state, pursuant to this chapter; and (2) Provided a valid email address when registering as a voter. An individual's social security number, driver license number, South Dakota nondriver identification number, and date of birth contained in the historical archive of the statewide voter registration file are not open to public inspection.

The secretary of state shall establish and maintain a computerized system for maintaining and utilizing the voter registration file and transmitting voter registration information from each county auditor to the Office of the Secretary of State. The State Board of Elections shall promulgate rules, pursuant to chapter 1-26, to develop and implement establishing procedures to secure the computerized system used for the voter registration file from external threats that could damage the integrity of the voter registration system. Each county auditor shall transmit daily any changes to the master registration file or the absentee voter log to the secretary of state on a daily basis using the computerized system maintained by the secretary of state. The county auditor shall transmit updated information contained in the county voter registration system, including voter registration information and voter election history information, to the Office of the Secretary of State secretary of state not later than July fifteenth after each primary election and December fifteenth after each general election. The secretary of state shall publish a weekly update to the statewide voter registration file on the secretary's website. The weekly update to the statewide voter registration file must be recorded each Monday by 11:59 p.m. and must contain any updates to the information in the county master registration file, pursuant to § 12-4-9.

The secretary of state may shall promulgate rules, pursuant to chapter 1-26 concerning, providing for: (1) Procedures for the establishing The establishment and maintenance of the statewide voter registration file; (2) Transmission of The transmission of the voter registration information from the county auditor to the Office of the Secretary of State secretary of state; (3) Procedures for determining The identification of duplicate voter registration; and (4) Dissemination of The publishing of the information from the statewide voter registration file; and (5) Establishment of fees for information provided from the statewide voter registration file.

Any information obtained from the statewide voter registration file or any county voter registration file may not be used or sold only for election purposes, may not be used for any commercial purpose, and may not be placed for unrestricted access on the internet. 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 1 misdemeanor. In addition to any criminal sanctions, the court may impose a civil penalty not to exceed two thousand dollars for each violation. Any civil penalty collected pursuant to this section shall must be deposited in the general fund. 29

The county auditor shall maintain and safeguard a file of voters in computer format that contains the information of each person registered in each voting precinct within the county. This file shall be known as the master registration file and shall be, at all times during office hours, open to public inspection. However, public access to social security numbers, driver license numbers, and dates of birth contained in the master registration file is prohibited. The master registration file shall contain all information from each voter's registration card. The master registration file shall also include the date of the last election the voter has voted in and when the voter's information was last updated. The master registration file may also contain additional voter history information. Any digital master registration file that contains: (1) The information from the voter registration card of reach individual registered to vote in the county; (2) The dates of the last four elections at which the individual has voted; (3) The date when the individual's voter information was last updated; and (4) Any application made by an individual to vote by absentee ballot, including: (a) The mailing address listed on the absentee ballot application form; (b) The absentee ballot requested on the application; (c) The date the absentee ballot was requested; (d) The date that the absentee ballot was returned; and (e) The method of absentee voting employed by the individual. 24 The master registration file must be open to public inspection, free of charge. An individual's social security number, driver license number, South Dakota nondriver identification number, or date of birth is not open to public inspection. The county auditor shall produce a record of all the information contained in the master registration file the day before any election scheduled within the county by 11:59 p.m. The county auditor shall maintain a rolling five-year archive of historical information from the master registration file. The county auditor shall keep a voter registration form for a purged or unregistered voter shall be kept for twenty-two months. No purged or unregistered voter may be included in the master registration file.