TITLE 21 ELECTIONS

Section 2. Elections and Primaries Generally, 21-2-1 through 21-2-604.

ARTICLE 9 VOTING MACHINES AND VOTE RECORDERS GENERALLY

21-2-322. General requirements as to voting machines.

No voting machine 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, 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 label 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. It shall preclude each elector from voting for any candidate or upon any question for whom or upon which he or she is not entitled to vote; from voting for more persons for any office than he or she is entitled to vote for; and from voting for any candidate for the same office or upon any question more than once;
6. It shall be capable of adjustment by poll officers so as to permit each elector at a primary to vote only for the candidates seeking nomination by the party in whose primary he or she is then voting and so as to preclude him or her from voting for the candidates seeking nomination by any party in whose primary he or she is not then voting;
7. It shall fairly permit each elector to deposit, write in, or affix upon receptacles or devices provided for the purpose ballots containing the names of persons for whom he or she desires to vote whose names do not appear upon the machine; provided, however, that, if the machine does not fairly permit such a vote to be cast, an elector desiring to vote for any person whose name does not appear on the machine shall be permitted to vote in the election by the use of a paper ballot which shall be furnished by the superintendent;
8. It shall permit each elector to change his or her vote for any candidate or upon any question appearing upon the ballot labels up to the time he or she begins to register his or her vote or indicates or expresses his or her intentions to register his or her vote;
9. It shall permit and require voting in absolute secrecy and shall be so constructed 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;
10. It shall have voting devices for separate candidates and questions, which shall be arranged in separate parallel rows or columns, so that, at any primary, one or more adjacent rows or columns may be assigned to the candidates of a party or body and shall have parallel office columns or rows transverse thereto;
11. It shall have a public counter or other device, the register of which is visible from the outside of the machine, which shall show during any period of voting the total number of electors who have operated the machine during such period of voting;
12. It shall have a protective counter or other device, the register of which cannot be reset, which shall record the cumulative total number of movements of the operating mechanism;
13. It shall be provided with a lock or locks, by the use of which, immediately after the polls are closed or the operation of the machine for a primary or election is completed, all movements of the registering mechanism are absolutely prevented;
14. It shall be provided with a screen, hood, or curtain which shall conceal the actions of the elector while voting;
15. It shall be constructed of material of good quality in a neat and workmanlike manner;
16. It shall, when properly operated, register or record correctly and accurately every vote cast;
17. It shall be so constructed that an elector may readily learn the method of operating it;
18. It shall be safely transportable;
19. It shall be so constructed and controlled that during the progress of voting it shall preclude every person from seeing or knowing the number of votes registered for any candidate and from tampering with any of the registering mechanism; and
20. If it is of a type equipped with a mechanism for printing paper proof sheets and not requiring the counters to be made visible in order to canvass the votes recorded on the machine, the door or other device concealing such counters or keeping the same concealed may be equipped with a lock or locks, requiring the simultaneous use of three separate and substantially different keys to open or operate the same.

(Code 1933, § 34-1206, enacted by Ga. L. 1964, Ex. Sess., p. 26, § 1; Ga. L. 1968, p. 851, §§ 2, 3; Ga. L. 1969, p. 329, § 15a; Ga. L. 1993, p. 118, § 1; Ga. L. 1994, p. 279, § 4; Ga. L. 1998, p. 295, § 1.)