KRS § 117.383 — KY Code / Title X / Chapter 117 / Section 117.383
117.383 Administrative regulations relating to voting
Status: in_force

117.383 Administrative regulations relating to voting.

The State Board of Elections shall promulgate administrative regulations under KRS

Chapter 13A which shall maintain the maximum degree of correctness, impartiality, and

efficiency of the procedures of voting and shall provide methods to:

(1) Count, tabulate, and record votes;

(2) Place items on any ballot which shall, as closely as possible, follow the

requirements pertaining to ballots;

(3) Design the ballots to include a system to ensure an accurate record of all voting

activities;

(4) Instruct voters in the use of the voting system, including any ballot marking device;

(5) Provide for checking the accuracy of the voting system;

(6) Provide necessary supplies, including those necessary for a write-in vote, to ensure

voter privacy;

(7) Provide for the conducting and review of an audit of any component of a voting

system or any voting equipment, and a review of any audit log;

(8) Provide for the conducting and review of an election audit which shall establish the

protocol by which ballots are checked, compared, and verified with the results

produced by vote tallying equipment to ensure accuracy through a hand-to-eye

audit defined and conducted as follows:

(a) To validate the accuracy and fidelity of the vote tabulation, the Secretary of

State or his or her designee shall randomly select, in all counties of the

Commonwealth, one (1) ballot scanner and one (1) race tabulated on that

scanner for a hand-to-eye audit to be performed by each county board of

elections or its designee;

(b) The sealed ballot boxes and signed tabulator tally tape or record from election

day, as established in KRS 117.275, shall be provided by the county board of

elections at an agreed upon location, and shall be accessible for public

viewing. The sealed ballots are only to be unsealed in the presence of the

county board of elections or its designee and public witnesses;

(c) A minimum of two (2) qualified poll workers, not of the same political party,

shall be selected from lists of available volunteers, sworn in by the county

board of elections or its designee to do the hand-to-eye audit, and

compensated at the local poll worker rate. A video recording device shall be

used for recording the event and it may be streamed for public internet

viewing. A request under the Kentucky Open Records Act, KRS 61.870 to

61.884, for this video after an election shall be made during the sixty (60)

consecutive days following the election, and the video may be disposed of

after those sixty (60) days, or upon compliance with the Kentucky Open

Records Act or the closure of an investigation or any litigation, including

appeals, in a District, Circuit, or federal court, whichever is later;

(d) Ballots are to be aligned for stacking as needed, then viewed one (1) at a time,

with each volunteer making a tally mark on a tally sheet for each vote cast for

each candidate. Any ballots that are disputed or unclearly marked shall be set

aside and the county board of elections or its designee shall determine voter

intent;

(e) Once the hand-to-eye audit is completed, each volunteer shall add up the tally

marks for each candidate, write down a total number of votes for each

candidate, and sign the tally sheet. The county board of elections or its

designee shall verify if the two (2) separate hand-to-eye tallies match. If the

two (2) hand-to-eye tallies do not match each other, the process must be

repeated until the totals are matching. Once this occurs, the county board of

elections or its designee shall also verify the tallies by signing each tally sheet.

Then, the ballots must be returned to the ballot box and resealed in the

presence of the county board of elections or its designee and public witnesses;

(f) The county board of elections or its designee shall compare the signed register

tape total from the vote tabulation machine on election day to the hand-to-eye

tallies. If there is a discrepancy between the machine count and the hand-to-

eye audit, other than instances of voter intent markings outside the designated

marking area on the paper ballot that were unreadable by the scanner, or

unscanned overvotes resulting from two (2) or more voter intent marks on the

same race, the county board of elections or its designee shall open an election

investigation including a review of election day irregularity reports. If more

discrepancies are found, the county board of elections or its designee shall

broaden the investigation until the reason for the discrepancy is discovered

and subsequently resolved. A determination as to whether the outcome of the

race could have been impacted by the discrepancies shall be made and any

findings shall be reported to the Attorney General and Secretary of State; and

(g) The county board of elections or its designee shall examine the electronic or

paper sign-in records from the precinct or vote center and validate that the

ballots cast and recounted were less than or equal to the sign-in records for

that precinct or vote center. If the cast ballots for the precinct or vote center

exceed the number of voters on the sign-in records for the precinct or vote

center, the county board of elections shall open an election investigation and

report the findings to the Attorney General and Secretary of State;

(9) Provide a method for maintaining sufficient documents, including ballots and

records, so that votes can be recounted;

(10) Ensure the county board of elections produces accurate precinct-by-precinct

summaries of tabulation sheets showing the results of each precinct during in-

person absentee voting, election day voting, and when a county is approved to use a

vote center;

(11) Except as otherwise required in this chapter, all records and papers relating to

specified elections be retained for twenty-two (22) months, such documents and

records shall be maintained for thirty (30) days following an election; and

(12) Unless contrary to the Help America Vote Act of 2002, ensure that all federal

provisional voting shall be conducted in a manner as prescribed by KRS Chapters

116 to 120.