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Fact Sheet on Obtaining Data from the Maine Central Voter Registration System (CVR) (Title 21-A, Section 196)
Revised by the Office of the Secretary of State, January 2008
- Title 21-A, Maine Law on Elections, section 196, governs the use and distribution of information from the CVR.
- Section 196 was amended by the Public Laws of 2007, c. 397, effective June 21, 2007.
- Under this law, voter information is confidential if it contains both the name of a voter and that voter’s record number, and may be accessed only by state election officials or municipal election officials, except as otherwise provided.
- Municipal election officials may only provide data and reports on their own voters. State election officials may provide data and reports on voters by municipality, state districts or statewide.
- Information on an individual voter may only be obtained by that voter. A voter must submit a completed “Request for Obtaining Data from Maine CVR” form to the municipal registrar or the Secretary of State’s Office to obtain the “Individual Voter History” report, which is free of charge.
- Municipality, Statewide, or District voter lists or data are available to the public upon submission of the completed “Request for Obtaining Data from Maine CVR” form and payment of the applicable fee to a municipal registrar (for that municipality’s data only) or to the Secretary of State’s Office (for all other requests).
- There are restrictions on use and redistribution of data from the CVR.
Information obtained from the CVR may not be used for:
Any commercial purpose, including sales and marketing of products or services, or
Solicitations of any kind that are not directly related to the activities of a political party, so called “get out the vote” efforts, or activities directly related to a campaign. For purposes of this law, “campaign” is defined in 21-A MRSA §1052, to include activities relating to the promotion or defeat of a citizen’s initiative or people’s veto referendum, a constitutional amendment, legislation expressly conditioned upon ratification by a referendum vote under the Constitution, the ratification of bonds, and any county or municipal referendum.
This means that any person obtaining information from the CVR is prohibited from selling or distributing it to others to use for any commercial purpose or for solicitations of any kind not directly related to the activities of a political party, so called “get out the vote” efforts, or activities related to a campaign.
Any information contained in the CVR may be made available free of charge to a law enforcement officer or agency that makes a written request to use the information for a bona fide law enforcement purpose.
Data Available:
A. Voter Record Data – includes the following current information (as applicable) for each voter record in the data set urchased: Voter Record Number; Voter Name; Address (residence and mailing); Date of Birth; Enrollment Status; Electoral Districts; Date of Registration; Date of Change (if applicable); Any Special Designations (Uniformed Service Voter or Overseas Voter, and Township Voter).
If requested, this data also includes Voter Participation History (VPH), which is the report by Voter Record Number for voters who participated in one or more designated elections.
- Requests for Voter Participation History for any State election may be made to an individual municipality for that municipality’s data, or to the Secretary of State (Division of Elections) for statewide or district-wide data.
- State Election law (Title 21-A) requires all municipalities to enter the VPH for each voter for any State election, starting with the June 12, 2007 Special Referendum Election. Municipalities may enter VPH for past state elections, or for municipal elections at their discretion.
- Requests for Voter Participation History for any municipal election must be made directly to the municipality. VPH for municipal elections is not required by law to be maintained in the CVR.
B. List of Absentee Voters – this is the list of voters who requested and were furnished an absentee ballot for a specific election. Municipalities are required to enter this absentee ballot information for any state election, starting with the June 12, 2007 Special Referendum Election. The list includes the following information (required by 21-A MRSA §753-B): Voter’s Name; Residence Address; Voting Districts; Party Affiliation; Date and Manner by which Ballot was Requested, Issued and Received; Notation of Whether the Ballot was Accepted or Rejected; and Any Special Designations (Uniformed Service Voter or Overseas Voter, and Township Voter). This list is only available by municipality, it is not available in a statewide or district-wide report.
Fees:
A. The fee for information provided in printed form is $1 for the first page and 25¢ per page for all additional pages, except that the fee for additional pages of mailing labels is 75¢ per page.
B. An “Individual Voter History” report is free of charge to the voter. A “Biennial Municipal Caucus List” is free of charge to the person calling the caucus, beginning after January 1 of each even-numbered year.*
C. The fees charged for electronic information from the CVR are based on the number of voter records requested, as follows:
- For 900,001 or more records, $2,000;
- For 600,001 to 900,000 records, $1,500;
- For 400,001 to 600,000 records, $1,000;
- For 250,001 to 400,000 records, $750;
- For 150,001 to 250,000 records, $500;
- For 100,001 to 150,000 records, $250;
- For 75,001 to 100,000 records, $200;
- For 50,001 to 75,000 records, $165;
- For 35,001 to 50,000 records, $125;
- For 25,001 to 35,000 records, $75;
- For 15,001 to 25,000 records, $50;
- For 7,501 to 15,000 records, $30;
- For 1,001 to 7,500 records, $20; or
- For 1 to 1,000 records, $10.
Any candidate in a primary or general election for a state or federal office who has purchased a list or report of voter information from the CVR may request, free of charge, a list of all additions, deletions, and changes to the purchased list no more than once per 30 day period, only as long as they remain a candidate for the office (pursuant to Title 21-A, §196, paragraph 5). See Instructions for more information on free updates.
Municipal registrars and the Secretary of State’s office shall respond to all requests for information within 5 business days of receipt of the completed request form and payment of any applicable fees.
*Revised wording
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