Posting #27 – The Impossible Law

By: RSOL of Virginia
Date:  01/26/2009

Dear Virginia Lawmakers,

On the evening of Wednesday January 14, 2008, my husband learned that he was incapable of complying with a current Virginia law, despite his obvious and documented attempts.

His company is changing their name, so that means everyone's e-mail addresses are changing. (He works 12 hour shifts, both days and nights)

Prior to his leaving work on January 14, he sent me an e-mail stating that if I wanted him to grab anything on the way home that I should call him, I noted that his return address was different than it had been earlier in the day. I called him and informed him that it had changed and he immediately redirected his car towards our local State Police office He arrived at  the State Police at 6:45PM to update his new work e-mail address.

As you are all aware that the current Virginia law requires ALL e-mail changes to be reported within 30 MINUTES in person and new thumbprints are taken.

It turned out that the State Police locations are only open Monday-Friday 8:00AM to 4:30PM. Since he was on day shift that week (6:30AM to 6:30PM) and his job does not allow him to leave work during working hours he would have to wait until he began nightshift the following Monday to submit the change. But wait Monday would be Martin Luther Jr. Holiday so he would actually have to wait until Tuesday January 20 to update his information.

He attempted to register the new address, the doors to the State Police were locked, he's on camera asking through the intercom what do I do and the next time he can return during their hours of operation is almost a full week away.
  
So when he finally arrived home he called the State Trooper that is assigned to his case and advised them of the new e-mail address, which the trooper confirmed by e-mailing him back.

Back in October 2008 when we formed the RSOL of Virginia, we actually planned on the exact day and time we would reserve our new e-mail address. It was a Thursday in the afternoon and I was perched at the computer and John was ready to hop in his car to drive to the State Police location. As soon as Comcast accepted our choice of an e-mail address, I wrote it down for him and he jumped in the car and drove to the State Police to register it. We knew we only had 30 minutes (by law) to comply. Technically even at this it was not registered until after 45 minutes as there were people ahead of him at the station.

This current regulation of 30 minutes to update all e-mail information when the hours of operation for the State Police are Mon-Fri 8:00 to 4:30 is impossible.

What about someone that lives out in the country more than 30 minutes away from their local office?
We were advised by a supporter that Waldo Jaquith (who developed the Richmond Sunlight web-site) related a story last year that shows how ridiculous the e-mail law is. He developed a Yahoo Store and then wanted to cancel it; he kept sending them messages but not getting any responses. Waldo finally discovered that when he set up the Yahoo store, they assigned him a Yahoo e-mail without his knowledge.
This would be considered a violation of the current Virginia law for any RSO. But how would they register an address that they don't even know has been established in their name?
This law needs to be revised or Virginia needs to leave the doors of the State Police locations open 24 hours a day, 365 days a week.

We would hope you'll address this issue during the 2009 session.

Thank you.

RSOL of Virginia Organizers