Senate Bill No. 665
(By Senator Craigo)
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[Introduced February 22, 1999;
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact article three, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section thirty-eight-a, relating to establishing criminal penalties for the misuse of a newspaper receptacle.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article three, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section thirty- eight-a, to read as follows:
§61-3-38a. Misuse of newspaper route receptacles; penalty.
Any person who, without the express consent of the customer, places into a roadside receptacle placed by a newspaper or periodical business to facilitate home delivery of a designated newspaper or periodical any document or other item which advocates the election or defeat of a candidate for election to any public office or the passage or defeat of any ballot issue, other than a paid advertisement in the newspaper or periodical for which placement of the receptacle was caused, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be confined in a regional or county jail for not more than ten days or fined not more than one hundred dollars, or both.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is establish criminal penalties for persons who, without the express consent of the customer, utilize newspaper receptacles placed for newspaper or periodical delivery for disseminating campaign material.