Public Records/Victims of Domestic and Dating Violence
Summary
S0298 expands Florida’s public-records protections for participants in the Address Confidentiality Program for Victims of Domestic and Dating Violence. The bill specifically makes identifying information for victims of dating violence—such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, and Social Security numbers—exempt from public disclosure when held by the Office of the Attorney General, and it also shields names, addresses, and telephone numbers that appear in voter registration and voting records maintained by supervisors of elections and the Department of State.
The measure is designed to help participants vote and maintain accurate election records without exposing their location or contact information to abusers or probable assailants. It applies retroactively to records held before, on, or after the effective date, and it includes a sunset date of October 2, 2031, unless the Legislature reviews and reenacts it under the Open Government Sunset Review Act. The bill’s effective date is contingent on related legislation, SB 296, or similar legislation, becoming law in the same session.
Impact
The bill amends section 741.465, Florida Statutes, to broaden existing confidentiality protections that previously applied to domestic violence victims so that they also expressly cover victims of dating violence in the Address Confidentiality Program. It creates or clarifies exemptions from Florida’s public records law and the state constitutional right of access for specified personal information held by the Attorney General, the Department of State, and supervisors of elections. Election officials may still use verifiable address information for district assignment and compliance purposes, but the protected information is otherwise exempt from disclosure.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have received strong, bipartisan support and moved through both chambers unanimously at every recorded vote. Committee and floor votes in the Senate and House were all favorable, with no recorded opposition, suggesting broad agreement that the privacy and safety interests of program participants outweigh public disclosure interests. The overall tone reflected support for extending protections to dating violence victims and aligning them more closely with protections already available to domestic violence victims.
Contention
There was little visible contention in the recorded history, but the main policy balance underlying the bill is between public access to government records and the privacy and safety of victims enrolled in the confidentiality program. The Legislature’s stated justification emphasizes the risk that disclosure could reveal a participant’s location and undermine the program’s purpose, while also acknowledging that election officials need enough information to place voters in the correct district and maintain accurate records. The bill’s retroactive application and contingent effective date are procedural points that could matter administratively, but no opposition was recorded in the available materials.