§26-7-104. Hours for voting - Conformity with federal law.

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A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

A. At every Primary, Runoff Primary and General Election and any other election conducted by a county election board, each polling place in the state shall open at 7:00 a.m. and shall remain open continuously until 7:00 p.m., and every registered voter of a precinct who presents himself or herself between said hours shall be entitled to vote, as provided by law, provided further, all qualified voters who are in line waiting to vote at 7:00 p.m. shall be allowed to vote.

B. 1. A registered voter wishing to vote on election day shall appear at the polling place for his or her assigned precinct.

2. Neither the State Election Board nor any county election board shall utilize vote centers for voting on election day. For the purposes of this section, "vote center" means a place where any voter in the entire jurisdiction can vote on election day, regardless of the voter's precinct assignment. Provided, an exception to this requirement may be authorized for a county election board by the Secretary of the State Election Board in the event of an emergency as described in Section 22-101 of this title. The emergency use of a countywide vote center must be limited to the precincts directly impacted by the emergency.

3. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit the use of subprecincts as described in Section 3-119 of this title, nor shall it prohibit the assignment of precinct officials to serve more than one precinct, if authorized by law, if the precincts share the same election day polling place.

C. If any provision of federal law specifies hours for voting in federal elections, the Secretary of the State Election Board shall direct the county election boards to allow voting in all elections held on the same day as such federal elections during the hours specified by federal law. Added by Laws 1974, c. 153, § 7-104, operative Jan.1, 1975. Amended by Laws 1988, c. 101, § 2, emerg. eff. April 1, 1988; Laws 2025, c. 278, § 2, eff. July 1, 2025.