117.383 Administrative regulations relating to voting.
1,009 words·~5 min read·
/ky/chapter-117/117-383A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
The State Board of Elections shall promulgate administrative regulations under KRS Chapter 13A which shall maintain the maximum degree of correctness, impartiality, and efficiency of the procedures of voting and shall provide methods to:
(1)Count, tabulate, and record votes;
(2)Place items on any ballot which shall, as closely as possible, follow the
requirements pertaining to ballots;
(3)Design the ballots to include a system to ensure an accurate record of all voting
activities;
(4)Instruct voters in the use of the voting system, including any ballot marking device;
(5)Provide for checking the accuracy of the voting system;
(6)Provide necessary supplies, including those necessary for a write-in vote, to ensure
voter privacy;
(7)Provide for the conducting and review of an audit of any component of a voting
system or any voting equipment, and a review of any audit log;
(8)Provide for the conducting and review of an election audit which shall establish the
protocol by which ballots are checked, compared, and verified with the results
produced by vote tallying equipment to ensure accuracy through a hand-to-eye
audit defined and conducted as follows:
(a)To validate the accuracy and fidelity of the vote tabulation, the Secretary of
State or his or her designee shall randomly select, in all counties of the
Commonwealth, one
(1)ballot scanner and one
(1)race tabulated on that
scanner for a hand-to-eye audit to be performed by each county board of
elections or its designee;
(b)The sealed ballot boxes and signed tabulator tally tape or record from election
day, as established in KRS 117.275, shall be provided by the county board of
elections at an agreed upon location, and shall be accessible for public
viewing. The sealed ballots are only to be unsealed in the presence of the
county board of elections or its designee and public witnesses;
(c)A minimum of two
(2)qualified poll workers, not of the same political party,
shall be selected from lists of available volunteers, sworn in by the county
board of elections or its designee to do the hand-to-eye audit, and
compensated at the local poll worker rate. A video recording device shall be
used for recording the event and it may be streamed for public internet
viewing. A request under the Kentucky Open Records Act, KRS 61.870 to
61.884, for this video after an election shall be made during the sixty
consecutive days following the election, and the video may be disposed of
after those sixty
(60)days, or upon compliance with the Kentucky Open
Records Act or the closure of an investigation or any litigation, including
appeals, in a District, Circuit, or federal court, whichever is later;
(d)Ballots are to be aligned for stacking as needed, then viewed one
(1)at a time,
with each volunteer making a tally mark on a tally sheet for each vote cast for
each candidate. Any ballots that are disputed or unclearly marked shall be set
aside and the county board of elections or its designee shall determine voter
intent;
(e)Once the hand-to-eye audit is completed, each volunteer shall add up the tally
marks for each candidate, write down a total number of votes for each
candidate, and sign the tally sheet. The county board of elections or its
designee shall verify if the two
(2)separate hand-to-eye tallies match. If the
two
(2)hand-to-eye tallies do not match each other, the process must be
repeated until the totals are matching. Once this occurs, the county board of
elections or its designee shall also verify the tallies by signing each tally sheet.
Then, the ballots must be returned to the ballot box and resealed in the
presence of the county board of elections or its designee and public witnesses;
(f)The county board of elections or its designee shall compare the signed register
tape total from the vote tabulation machine on election day to the hand-to-eye
tallies. If there is a discrepancy between the machine count and the hand-to-
eye audit, other than instances of voter intent markings outside the designated
marking area on the paper ballot that were unreadable by the scanner, or
unscanned overvotes resulting from two
(2)or more voter intent marks on the
same race, the county board of elections or its designee shall open an election
investigation including a review of election day irregularity reports. If more
discrepancies are found, the county board of elections or its designee shall
broaden the investigation until the reason for the discrepancy is discovered
and subsequently resolved. A determination as to whether the outcome of the
race could have been impacted by the discrepancies shall be made and any
findings shall be reported to the Attorney General and Secretary of State; and
(g)The county board of elections or its designee shall examine the electronic or
paper sign-in records from the precinct or vote center and validate that the
ballots cast and recounted were less than or equal to the sign-in records for
that precinct or vote center. If the cast ballots for the precinct or vote center
exceed the number of voters on the sign-in records for the precinct or vote
center, the county board of elections shall open an election investigation and
report the findings to the Attorney General and Secretary of State;
(9)Provide a method for maintaining sufficient documents, including ballots and
records, so that votes can be recounted;
(10)Ensure the county board of elections produces accurate precinct-by-precinct
summaries of tabulation sheets showing the results of each precinct during in-
person absentee voting, election day voting, and when a county is approved to use a
vote center;
(11)Except as otherwise required in this chapter, all records and papers relating to
specified elections be retained for twenty-two
(22)months, such documents and
records shall be maintained for thirty
(30)days following an election; and
(12)Unless contrary to the Help America Vote Act of 2002, ensure that all federal
provisional voting shall be conducted in a manner as prescribed by KRS Chapters
116 to 120.