H. B. 2950
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss, and Delegates Longstreth, Manchin,
Caputo, Perdue, Martin, Amores and Beane)
[Introduced
March 9, 2005
; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §3-4A-9 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to requiring a paper copy of a
voter's votes when using an electronic voting system to vote;
providing that the paper copy can only be used for a random
count of precincts or if an election is contested, challenged
or disputed; and providing that the Secretary of State may
promulgate rules.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §3-4A-9 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4A. ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEMS.
§3-4A-9. Minimum requirements of electronic voting systems.
An electronic voting system of particular make and design may
not be approved by the State Election Commission or be purchased,
leased or used by any county commission unless it meets the
following requirements:
(1) It secures or ensures the voter absolute secrecy in the
act of voting or, at the voter's election, provides for open
voting;
(2) It is constructed to ensure that no person, except in
instances of open voting as provided for in this section, can see
or know for whom any voter has voted or is voting;
(3) It permits each voter to vote at any election for all
persons and offices for whom and which he or she is lawfully
entitled to vote, whether or not the name of any person appears on
a ballot or ballot label as a candidate; and it permits each voter
to vote for as many persons for an office as he or she is lawfully
entitled to vote for; and to vote for or against any question upon
which he or she is lawfully entitled to vote. The automatic
tabulating equipment used in electronic voting systems is to reject
choices recorded on any ballot if the number of choices exceeds the
number to which a voter is entitled;
(4) It permits each voter to deposit, write in, affix upon a
ballot, card, envelope or other medium to be provided for that
purpose, ballots containing the names of persons for whom he or she
desires to vote whose names do not appear upon the ballots or
ballot labels;
(5) It permits each voter to change his or her vote for any
candidate and upon any question appearing upon the ballots or
ballot labels up to the time when his or her ballot is deposited in the ballot box or his or her ballot is cast by electronic means;
(6) It contains a program deck consisting of cards that are
sequentially numbered or consisting of a computer program disk,
diskette, tape or other programming media containing sequentially
numbered program instructions and coded or otherwise protected from
tampering or substitution of the media or program instructions by
unauthorized persons and capable of tabulating all votes cast in
each election;
(7) It contains two standard validation test decks approved as
to form and testing capabilities by the State Election Commission;
(8) It correctly records and counts accurately all votes cast
for each candidate and for and against each question appearing upon
the ballots or ballot labels;
(9) It permits each voter at any election other than primary
elections by one mark or punch to vote a straight party ticket, as
provided in section five, article six of this chapter;
(10) It permits each voter in primary elections to vote only
for the candidates of the party for which he or she is legally
permitted to vote and precludes him or her from voting for any
candidate seeking nomination by any other political party, permits
him or her to vote for the candidates, if any, for nonpartisan
nomination or election and permits him or her to vote on public
questions;
(11) It, where applicable, is provided with means for sealing or electronically securing the vote recording device to prevent its
use and to prevent tampering with ballot labels, both before the
polls are open or before the operation of the vote recording device
for an election is begun and immediately after the polls are closed
or after the operation of the vote recording device for an election
is completed;
(12) It has the capacity to contain the names of candidates
constituting the tickets of at least nine political parties and
accommodates the wording of at least fifteen questions;
(13) Electronic voting machines must generate a paper copy of
each voter's votes: Provided, That the paper copy may not be
accessible to the voter, but the paper copy shall be generated by
the electronic voting machine so that the voter can see that a
paper copy has been generated. The paper copy can only be used for
random testing of precinct counts or used when an election is
contested, challenged or disputed.
Electronic voting machines with a mandatory paper copy shall
be approved by the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State may
promulgate rules to implement or enforce this subsection pursuant
to the provisions of section five, article three, chapter
twenty-nine-a of this code.
(13) (14) Where vote recording devices are used, they:
(A) Are durably constructed of material of good quality and in
a workmanlike manner and in a form which makes it safely transportable;
(B) Are so constructed with frames for the placing of ballot
labels that the labels upon which are printed the names of
candidates and their respective parties, titles of offices and
wording of questions are reasonably protected from mutilation,
disfigurement or disarrangement or are constructed to ensure that
the screens upon which appear the names of the candidates and their
respective parties, titles of offices and wording of questions are
reasonably protected from any modification;
(C) Bear a number that will identify it or distinguish it from
any other machine;
(D) Are constructed to ensure that a voter may easily learn
the method of operating it and may expeditiously cast his or her
vote for all candidates of his or her choice and upon any public
question;
(E) Are accompanied by a mechanically or electronically
operated instruction model which shows the arrangement of ballot
labels, party columns or rows, and questions;
(F) For electronic voting systems that utilize a screen upon
which votes may be recorded by means of a stylus or by means of
touch, are constructed to provide for the direct electronic
recording and tabulating of votes cast in a system specifically
designed and engineered for the election application;
(G) For electronic voting systems that utilize a screen upon which votes may be recorded by means of a stylus or by means of
touch, are constructed to prevent any voter from voting for more
than the allowable number of candidates for any office, to include
an audible or visual signal, or both, warning any voter who
attempts to vote for more than the allowable number of candidates
for any office or who attempts to cast his or her ballot prior to
its completion and are constructed to include a visual or audible
confirmation, or both, to the voter upon completion and casting of
the ballot;
(H) For electronic voting systems that utilize a screen upon
which votes may be recorded by means of a stylus or by means of
touch, are constructed to present the entire ballot to the voter,
in a series of sequential pages, and to ensure that the voter sees
all of the ballot options on all pages before completing his or her
vote and to allow the voter to review and change all ballot choices
prior to completing and casting his or her ballot;
(I) For electronic voting systems that utilize a screen upon
which votes may be recorded by means of a stylus or by means of
touch, are constructed to allow election commissioners to spoil a
ballot where a voter fails to properly cast his or her ballot, has
departed the polling place and cannot be recalled by a poll clerk
to complete his or her ballot;
(J) For electronic voting systems that utilize a screen upon
which votes may be recorded by means of a stylus or by means of touch, are constructed to allow election commissioners, poll
clerks, or both, to designate, mark or otherwise record provisional
ballots;
(K) For electronic voting systems that utilize a screen upon
which votes may be recorded by means of a stylus or by means of
touch, consist of devices which are independent, nonnetworked
voting systems in which each vote is recorded and retained within
each device's internal nonvolatile electronic memory and contain an
internal security, the absence of which prevents substitution of
any other device;
(L) For electronic voting systems that utilize a screen upon
which votes may be recorded by means of a stylus or by means of
touch, store each vote in no fewer than three separate,
independent, nonvolatile electronic memory components and that each
device contains comprehensive diagnostics to ensure that failures
do not go undetected;
(M) For electronic voting systems that utilize a screen upon
which votes may be recorded by means of a stylus or by means of
touch, contain a unique, embedded internal serial number for
auditing purposes for each device used to activate, retain and
record votes;
(N) For electronic voting systems that utilize a screen upon
which votes may be recorded by means of a stylus or by means of
touch, are constructed to record all preelection, election and post-election activities, including all ballot images and system
anomalies, in each device's internal electronic memory and are to
be accessible in electronic or printed form;
(O) For electronic voting systems that utilize a screen upon
which votes may be recorded by means of a stylus or by means of
touch, are constructed with a battery backup system in each device
to, at a minimum, prevent the loss of any votes, as well as all
preelection, election and post-election activities, including all
ballot images and system anomalies, stored in the device's internal
electronic memory and to allow voting to continue for two hours of
uninterrupted operation in case of an electrical power failure; and
(P) For electronic voting systems that utilize a screen upon
which votes may be recorded by means of a stylus or by means of
touch, are constructed to prevent the loss of any votes, as well as
all preelection, election and post-election activities, including
all ballot images and system anomalies, stored in each device's
internal electronic memory even in case of an electrical and
battery power failure.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require a paper copy of
a voter's votes when using an electronic voting system to vote; to
provide that the paper copy can only be used for a random count of
precincts or if an election is contested, challenged or disputed;
and to provide that the Secretary of State may promulgate rules.
This bill ensures voter confidence in the electronic voting
system.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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