A.__For a voter who is certified by the Secretary of State as a program participant in the Address Confidentiality Program pursuant to Title 5, section 90-B, all records maintained by the registrar pertaining to that voter must be kept confidential and must be excluded from public inspection.

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 voter or a member of the voter's immediate family residing with the voter would be jeopardized if the voter's address were open to public inspection, that voter's residence and mailing addresses 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 196 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 signed statement is also a public record.

Sec. 3. 21-A MRSA §101, sub-§2, as repealed and replaced by PL 1999, c. 426, §3, is amended to read:

2. Appointment. The municipal officers of each municipality shall appoint in writing a qualified registrar of voters by January 1st of each odd-numbered year. The registrar shall serve for 2 years and until a successor is appointed and sworn. The municipal clerk may be appointed to serve as registrar, but the term of the clerk has no effect on the term of the registrar. If the clerk is not appointed to serve as registrar, the clerk must be appointed by the registrar to serve as a deputy registrar and has the same authority as the registrar to make determinations of voter eligibility and to perform the duties of voter registration as provided in this Title.

Sec. 4. 21-A MRSA §102, first ¶, as amended by PL 1995, c. 459, §3, is further amended to read:

The registrar may appoint one or more deputies, except that if the registrar does not also serve as the clerk, the registrar shall appoint the clerk to serve as a deputy registrar. If the registrar is unavailable for a period exceeding 15 consecutive days, the registrar shall appoint a deputy registrar who must be available to perform the duties of the registrar. If the registrar and the appointed deputy are unavailable for more than 15 consecutive days, the municipal clerk shall serve as registrar pro tem.