Skip to content
Georgia Commons
Menu

Official Code of Georgia Annotated

Title 21. ELECTIONS · Chapter 2. ELECTIONS AND PRIMARIES GENERALLY · Article 15. MISCELLANEOUS OFFENSES

21-2-587. Frauds by poll officers.

Active

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

  1. Any poll officer who willfully:

  2. (1)

    Makes a false return of the votes cast at any primary or election;#

  3. (2)

    Deposits fraudulent ballots in the ballot box or certifies as correct a false return of ballots;#

  4. (3)

    Registers fraudulent votes upon any voting machine or certifies as correct a return of fraudulent votes cast upon any voting machine;#

  5. (4)

    Makes any false entries in the electors list;#

  6. (5)

    Destroys or alters any ballot, voter’s certificate, or electors list;#

  7. (6)

    Tampers with any voting machine, direct recording electronic (DRE) equipment, electronic ballot marker, or tabulating machine or device;#

  8. (7)

    Prepares or files any false voter’s certificate not prepared by or for an elector actually voting at such primary or election; or#

  9. (8)

    Fails to return to the officials prescribed by this chapter, following any primary or election, any keys of a voting machine; ballot box; general or duplicate return sheet; tally paper; oaths of poll officers; affidavits of electors and others; record of assisted voters; numbered list of voters; electors list; voter’s certificate; spoiled and canceled ballots; ballots deposited, written, or affixed in or upon a voting machine; DRE, electronic ballot marker, or tabulating machine memory cards; or any certificate or any other paper or record required to be returned under this chapter#

  10. shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years or to pay a fine not to exceed $100,000.00, or both.

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

Orig. Code 1863, § 1238; Code 1868, § 1319; Code 1873, § 1292; Code 1882, § 1292; Civil Code 1895, § 74; Civil Code 1910, § 84; Code 1933, § 34-1501; Code 1933, § 34-1921, enacted by Ga. L. 1964, Ex. Sess., p. 26, § 1; Ga. L. 1985, p. 206, § 1; Ga. L. 1998, p. 295, § 1; Ga. L. 2003, p. 517, § 65; Ga. L. 2007, p. 536, § 11/SB 40; Ga. L. 2010, p. 914, § 33/HB 540; Ga. L. 2019, p. 7, § 49/HB 316.

Cross references

Poll officers, § 21-2-90 et seq.

Administrative rules and regulations

Spoiled ballot definition, Official Compilation of the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, Georgia Election Code, Absentee Voting, § 183-1-14-.07.

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 629 to 630; merge action: carried; file SHA-256 0bbec62b36ec.