§ 305. Use of electronic records. 1. In accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the electronic facilitator, government entities are authorized and empowered to produce, receive, accept, acquire, record, file, transmit, forward, and store information by use of electronic means. If any such government entity uses electronic records, it must also ensure that anyone who uses the services of such government entity may obtain access to records as permitted by statute, and receive copies of such records in paper form in accordance with fees prescribed by statute. No person shall be required to submit or file any record electronically to any government entity except as otherwise provided by law. Government entities that obtain, store, or utilize electronic records shall not refuse to accept hard copy, non-electronic forms, reports, and other paper documents for submission or filing except as otherwise provided by law.

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2. A government entity shall have the authority to dispose of or destroy a record in accordance with the arts and cultural affairs law, regardless of format or media.

3. An electronic record shall have the same force and effect as those records not produced by electronic means.

4. The director shall study how electronic documents and the mechanisms and processes for obtaining access to and reading electronic data can be created, maintained, exchanged, and preserved by the state in a manner that encourages appropriate government control, access, choice, interoperability, and vendor neutrality. The study shall consider, but not be limited to, the policies of other states and nations, management guidelines for state archives as they pertain to electronic documents, public access, expected storage life of electronic documents, costs of implementation, and savings. The director shall solicit comments regarding the creation, maintenance, exchange, and preservation of electronic documents by the state from stakeholders, including but not limited to, the office of the state comptroller, the office of the attorney general, the state archives, and the state historian. The director shall also solicit comments from members of the public. The director shall report findings and recommendations to the governor, the speaker of the assembly, and the temporary president of the senate on or before January fifteenth, two thousand eight.