Official Code of Georgia Annotated

Title 21. ELECTIONS · Chapter 2. ELECTIONS AND PRIMARIES GENERALLY · Article 9. VOTING MACHINES AND VOTE RECORDERS GENERALLY · Part 4. OPTICAL SCANNING VOTING SYSTEMS

21-2-365. Requirements for use of optical scanning voting systems.

Active

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

No optical scanning voting system shall be adopted or used unless it shall, at the time, satisfy the following requirements:
(1)
It shall provide facilities for voting for such candidates as may be nominated and upon such questions as may be submitted;#
(2)
It shall permit each elector, in one operation per ballot, to vote for all the candidates of one party or body for presidential electors;#
(3)
Except as provided in paragraph (2) of this Code section for presidential electors, it shall permit each elector, at other than primaries, to vote a ticket selected from the nominees of any and all parties or bodies, from independent nominations, and from persons not in nomination;#
(4)
It shall permit each elector to vote, at any election, for any person and for any office for whom and for which he or she is lawfully entitled to vote, whether or not the name of such person or persons appears upon a ballot as a candidate for election; to vote for as many persons for an office as he or she is entitled to vote for; and to vote for or against any question upon which he or she is entitled to vote;#
(5)
A ballot scanner shall preclude the counting of votes for any candidate or upon any question for whom or upon which an elector is not entitled to vote; shall preclude the counting of votes for more persons for any office than he or she is entitled to vote for; and shall preclude the counting of votes for any candidate for the same office or upon any question more than once;#
(6)
It shall permit voting in absolute secrecy so that no person can see or know for whom any other elector has voted or is voting, save an elector whom he or she has assisted or is assisting in voting, as prescribed by law;#
(7)
It shall be constructed of material of good quality in a neat and workmanlike manner;#
(8)
It shall, when properly operated, record correctly and accurately every vote cast;#
(9)
It shall be so constructed that an elector may readily learn the method of operating it; and#
(10)
It shall be safely transportable.#

The notes below are printed with the section but are not enacted law (O.C.G.A. § 1-1-1(c)). They are shown apart from the text.

History

Code 1981, § 21-2-365, enacted by Ga. L. 1998, p. 1231, § 37; Ga. L. 1999, p. 29, § 1; Ga. L. 2019, p. 7, § 19/HB 316.

Editor's notes

Ga L. 1998, p. 1231, § 13, effective April 20, 1998, and Ga. L. 1998, p. 265, § 1, repealed former Code Section 21-2-365, which was based on Code 1981, § 21-2-365, enacted by Ga. L. 1988, p. 964, § 2, relating to the use of optical scan voting systems.

Administrative rules and regulations

Ballot secrecy, Official Compilation of the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, Georgia Election Code, Ballots, § 183-1-11-.01.

Law reviews

For article on the 2019 amendment of this Code section, see 36 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 81 (2019).

Read the official page (the state's PDF, opened at the page this text was read from).

Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.

Text read from t21-(v18)-2023-pdf.pdf, Volume V18, 2023 edition, pages 356 to 357; merge action: carried; file SHA-256 0bbec62b36ec.

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