KRS § 119.195 — KY Code / Title X / Chapter 119 / Section 119.195
119.195 Removing or tampering with ballots
Status: in_force

119.195 Removing or tampering with ballots.

(1) Any person who, during an election, knowingly and willfully removes or attempts

to remove an official ballot from the election room, or has in his possession outside

the election room any official ballot, either genuine or counterfeit, shall be guilty of

a Class D felony.

(2) Any voter who attempts to leave the election room with an official ballot in his

possession shall at once be arrested on demand of either of the judges of election

and shall be guilty of a violation, unless the act was done knowingly in which event

he shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

(3) Any person who takes or removes in any manner, feloniously or with the consent or

permission of the custodian, any official ballot from any place where it may

lawfully be, or knowingly and willfully has in his possession or custody any such

official ballot, except as an officer or custodian under the law or while within the

polling place for the purpose of voting, and any custodian or officer who permits

any official ballot to be removed or carried away from the place where it may

lawfully be by any person other than the officer or custodian whose duty it is to

receive it, shall be guilty of a Class C felony.

(4) Any election officer, or other person entrusted with the custody or control of any

official ballot, either before or after it has been voted, who in any way marks,

mutilates, or defaces any official ballot or places any distinguishing mark thereon,

for the purpose of vitiating the official ballot, shall be guilty of a Class C felony.

(5) Any person who unlawfully destroys or attempts to destroy any official ballot box

used, or any official ballot deposited, at any election, or who unlawfully, by force,

fraud, or other improper means, obtains or attempts to obtain possession of any

ballot box or any official ballot therein deposited, while the voting at any election is

going on or before the official ballots are duly taken out and counted according to

law, shall be guilty of a Class D felony.

(6) Any election officer who mutilates or tampers with any of the seals, or destroys or

removes any official ballots required to be preserved, shall be guilty of a Class D

felony.

(7) Any county clerk who knowingly and willfully opens any ballot box and removes

any official ballot therefrom, or removes, destroys, or tampers with a ballot box and

official ballots left in his care and custody, or permits any other person to do so,

during the period the boxes are required to remain locked in his office, shall be

guilty of a Class D felony.

(8) Any person who removes, mutilates, or destroys, or adds any new official ballots to,

the regular official ballots that have been counted and prepared for preservation, or

that have already been preserved, so that the result of the election in the precinct or

county is changed, shall be guilty of a Class D felony.

(9) Any person who tampers with or changes the official ballots, or opens the

receptacles in which the official ballots are contained without the order of the court,

after the ballots have been sent to the Franklin County courthouse in connection

with the contest of a constitutional amendment, shall be guilty of a Class D felony.