Utah Code 20A-11-1205. Use of public email for a political purpose

20A-11-1205. Use of public email for a political purpose.

(1)

Except as provided in Subsection (5), a person may not send an email using the email of a public entity:

Terms Used In Utah Code 20A-11-1205

Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
Ballot: means the storage medium, including a paper, mechanical, or electronic storage medium, that records an individual voter's vote. See Utah Code 20A-1-102
Contribution: means any of the following when done for political purposes:

(i)	a gift, subscription, donation, loan, advance, or deposit of money or anything of value given to the filing entity;

(ii)	an express, legally enforceable contract, promise, or agreement to make a gift, subscription, donation, unpaid or partially unpaid loan, advance, or deposit of money or anything of value to the filing entity;

(iii)

any transfer of funds from another reporting entity to the filing entity;

(iv)	compensation paid by any person or reporting entity other than the filing entity for personal services provided without charge to the filing entity;

(v)

remuneration from:

(A)	any organization or its directly affiliated organization that has a registered lobbyist; or

(B)	any agency or subdivision of the state, including school districts;

(vi)	a loan made by a candidate deposited to the candidate's own campaign; and

(vii)

in-kind contributions. See Utah Code 20A-11-101

Election: means each:

(a)	regular general election;

(b)	regular primary election; and

(c)

special election at which candidates are eliminated and selected. See Utah Code 20A-11-101

Land: includes :Utah Code 68-3-12.5

Person: means both natural and legal persons, including individuals, business organizations, personal campaign committees, party committees, political action committees, political issues committees, and labor organizations, as defined in Section 20A-11-1501. See Utah Code 20A-11-101

Proposed initiative: means an initiative proposed in an application filed under Section 20A-7-202 or 20A-7-502. See Utah Code 20A-11-1202

Proposed referendum: means a referendum proposed in an application filed under Section 20A-7-302 or 20A-7-602. See Utah Code 20A-11-1202

Public entity: includes the state, each state agency, each county, municipality, school district, special district, governmental interlocal cooperation agency, and each administrative subunit of each of them. See Utah Code 20A-11-1202

(a)

for a political purpose;

(b)	to advocate for or against a proposed initiative, initiative, proposed referendum, referendum, a proposed bond, a bond, or any ballot proposition; or

(c)	to solicit a campaign contribution.

(2)

(a)

The lieutenant governor shall, after giving the person and the complainant notice and an opportunity to be heard, impose a civil fine against a person who violates Subsection (1) as follows:

(i)	up to $250 for a first violation; and

(ii)	except as provided in Subsection (3), for each subsequent violation committed after the lieutenant governor imposes a fine against the person for a first violation, $1,000 multiplied by the number of violations committed by the person.

(b)	A person may, within 30 days after the day on which the lieutenant governor imposes a fine against the person under this Subsection (2), appeal the fine to a district court.

(3)	The lieutenant governor shall consider a violation of this section as a first violation if the violation is committed more than seven years after the day on which the person last committed a violation of this section.

(4)	For purposes of this section, one violation means one act of sending an email, regardless of the number of recipients of the email.

(5)

A person does not violate this section if:

(a)	the lieutenant governor finds that the email described in Subsection (1) was inadvertently sent by the person using the email of a public entity;

(b)	the person is directly providing information solely to another person or a group of people in response to a question asked by the other person or group of people;

(c)

the information the person emails is an argument or rebuttal argument prepared under Section 20A-7-401.5 or 20A-7-402, and the email includes each opposing argument and rebuttal argument that:

(i)	relates to the same proposed initiative, initiative, proposed referendum, or referendum; and

(ii)	complies with the requirements of Section 20A-7-401.5 or 20A-7-402; or

(d)

the person is engaging in:

(i)	an internal communication solely within the public entity;

(ii)	a communication solely with another public entity;

(iii)

a communication solely with legal counsel;

(iv)	a communication solely with the sponsors of an initiative or referendum;

(v)	a communication solely with a land developer for a project permitted by a local land use law that is challenged by a proposed referendum or a referendum; or

(vi)	a communication solely with a person involved in a business transaction directly relating to a project described in Subsection (5)(d)(v).

(6)	A violation of this section does not invalidate an otherwise valid election.

(7)

An email sent in violation of Subsection (1), as determined by the records officer, constitutes a record, as defined in Section 63G-2-103, that is subject to the provisions of Title 63G, Chapter 2, Government Records Access and Management Act, notwithstanding any applicability of Subsection 63G-2-103(22)(b)(i).

Amended by Chapter 22, 2020 General Session

Previous section

Next section

Part 12 Contents