An Act To Ensure the Accurate Counting of Votes
Maine Legislature, Session 121, LD 1759
Committee: Legal and Veterans Affairs
Sponsors: PINGREE, MAYO, BOWEN, COLWELL, ROSEN, SMITH, BENNETT, DAGGETT, GAGNON, TREAT

Legislative Document 
No. 1759 
H.P.1281 
House of Representatives, December 22,2003 
An Act To Ensure the Accurate Counting of Votes 
Approved for introduction by a majority of the Legislative Council pursuant to Joint Rule 
203. 
Received by the Clerk of the House on December 17,2003. Referred to the Committee on 
Legal and Veterans Affairs pursuant to Joint Rule 308.2 and ordered printed pursuant to Joint 
Rule 40l. 
Presented by Representative PINGREE of North Haven. 
Cosponsored by Senator MAYO of Sagadahoc and 
'/7j~ 1/7. 7l/1lC~ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Representatives: BOWEN of Rockport, Speaker COLWELL of Gardiner, ROSEN of 
Bucksport, SMITH of Monmouth, Senators: BENNETT of Oxford, President DAGGETT of 
Kennebec, GAGNON of Kennebec, TREAT of Kennebec. 
Printed on recyded paper 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. I. 21·A MRSA §607, sub·§6 is enacted to read: 
6. 
Electronically 
produced 
and 
electronically 
counted 
ballots. 
The official ballot box for electronically produced or 
electronically counted ballots must be separate from the one used 
to receive provisional ballots as defined in section 808 and must 
be clearly marked as such. 
Sec. 2. 21·A MRSA §737.B is enacted to read: 
§737-B. 
Recount functions and costs 
1. 
Random recount. 
At the discretion of the Secretary of 
State any election may be followed within 120 hours of polls 
closing by a random statewide selection of up to 2% of individual 
voting places that use voting machines for a manual vote recount 
to audit the voting machines' accuracy. 
These recounts must be 
performed immediately following any recounts pursuant to section 
737-A. 
Random recounts must use the ballots produced by machine 
tabulation and must be performed by volunteer teams organized and 
trained specifically for random recounts by the Office of the 
Secretary of State. 
Such teams must consist of enrolled and 
unenrolled registered voters c 
in proportion to the percentages, 
by party and nonparty affiliation, of voter enrollment registered 
in the previous election cycle. 
Random recounts must be open to 
public observation. 
The recounted vote totals for these sample 
precincts must serve as the final tally for those precincts. 
2. 
Recount trigger. 
If there is any discrepancy between 
~ 
machine 
tally 
and 
the 
recount 
tally 
conducted 
pursuant 
to 
subsection 
that is greater than 
.1% 
and that can not 
be 
accounted for by voter error or ambiguity of voter intent, that 
discrepancy may trigger further manual recounts at the discretion 
of the Secretary of State from voting places that employ the same 
machine type as that voting place. If more than 2 such recounts 
are 
instituted, 
all 
like 
machines 
in 
the 
State 
must 
be 
recounted. 
Recounts must proceed without delay upon being so 
triggered and ordered. The recounted vote totals for triggered 
recounts must also serve as the final tally for those machines. 
3. 
Statistical 
analysis 
of 
recount 
results; 
recounts. 
Before the ballots associated with any election are discarded, 
the office of the Secretary of State may undertake a statistical 
analysis 
of 
all 
recount 
discrepancies 
discovered 
by 
random 
recount 
or 
otherwise 
in 
any 
election. 
Such 
analyses, 
if 
undertaken, must be published for public scrutiny 4 weeks prior 
to any ballot disposal order by the Secretary of State. 
Further 
recounts for 
any election may be instituted by order of the 
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Secretary of State upon the secretary's determination that such 
recounts are warranted by virtue of any statistical anomalies 
that the analyses performed pursuant to this subsection may have 
discovered. 
Such a 
recount process must be accompanied by 
a 
warrant issued by the Attorney General at the behest of the 
Secretary of State. 
4. 
Recount costs. 
The State shall attempt to recover from 
the vendor or manufacturer of voting machines costs to the State 
and municipalities for any recount that has been triggered by a 
discrepancy in a 
random recount under subsection 1, unless the 
cause of the discrepancy is shown to be due to negligence or 
malfeasance 
on 
the part of 
state agents 
or 
employees. 
All 
contracts 
between 
the 
State 
and 
voting 
machine 
vendors 
and 
manufacturers 
must 
incorporate 
the 
provisions 
of 
this 
subsection. 
Reimbursement for the costs of random recounts that 
do not result in such discrepancies may be sought from funds 
available from the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002, Public 
Law 107-252. 
Sec. 3. 21·A MRSA §808. sub.§5·A is enacted to read: 
5-A. 
Direct recording electronic voting machine. 
"Direct 
recording electronic voting machine" means a switch-operated or 
lever operated electronic voting machine that records a voter's 
choices electronically into a counting mechanism that tallies the 
votes without using a physical ballot. 
Sec. 4. 21·A MRSA §808, sub·§§8·A to 8·D are enacted to read: 
8-A. 
Mechanical lever voting machine. 
"Mechanical lever 
voting machine" means a machine that directly records a voter's 
choices via mechanical lever-actuated controls into a counting 
mechanism that tallies the votes without using a physical ballot. 
8-B. 
Provisional ballot. 
"Provisional 
ballot" 
means 
a 
hand-cast and hand-counted ballot that is used either when 
a 
challenged ballot occurs or when a voter chooses to cast such a 
ballot in lieu of using a voting machine. 
8-C. 
Punch 
card 
voting 
machine. 
"Punch 
card 
voting 
machine" means a machine that transmits a voter' s choices onto 
ei ther a prescored or unscored ballot via mechanically punched 
holes that are then read and tallied by the machine. 
8-D. 
Touch screen voting machine. 
"Touch screen voting 
machine" means a machine that utilizes a computer screen whereby 
a 
voter executes that voter's choices by touching designated 
locations on the screen and that then tabulates those choices and 
produces a paper ballot. 
Sec. 5. 21·A MRSA §§831 and 832 are enacted to read: 
S831. 
Voting machine standards 
All voting machines used in any election in this State must 
conform to the following standards. 
1. 
General. 
The mechanisms and computer software by which 
any voting machine tabulates, transmits or stores the votes must 
be fully accessible to the Office of the Secretary of State and 
agents of that office. 
Any computer software relating to such 
voting machines must employ an open-source operating code that is 
fully accessible to the Office of the Secretary of State and 
agents 
of 
that office. 
Appropriate 
encryption 
software 
for 
voting machines must be incorporated and used to prevent any 
unauthorized access 
while 
allowing full 
access 
by 
authorized 
agents 
and employees of the State. 
Any instance of work or 
inspections done to any voting machine in the State must be 
entered into 
a 
permanent log attached to that machine, 
with 
copies of the log sent to the Office of the Secretary of State, 
Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions on a monthly 
basis. 
Such a log is a public record for purposes of Title 1, 
chapter 13. 
2. 
Ballots. 
All voting machines in the State must produce 
a physical ballot, equivalent or superior to that of a hand-cast 
ballot, that unambiguously reflects the intent of the voter and 
that 
each voter 
shall personally 
review 
and 
deliver 
to 
an 
official ballot box. Touch screen voting machines must produce a 
legible, large-print ballot for verification by each voter of 
that voter's electoral 
choices 
before it is 
placed 
in 
the 
official ballot box. 
Each such ballot must also identify the 
individual machine that produced it while not identifying the 
voter. 
A. 
Ballots may be 
an optional feature only of machines 
dedicated to accommodate the needs of sight-impaired voters 
or other voters with disabilities for whom wardens determine 
usage of ballot-free voting is appropriate. The option of 
using a ballot-free function on a touch screen machine may 
be executed only by a warden on duty at an individual voting 
place upon request of a voter with a disability and only on 
a machine dedicated for access by voters with disabilities. 
A total count of such ballot-free uses on dedicated voting 
machines, which must be compiled so as to maintain complete 
voter anonymity, must be kept at each voting district and 
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transmi tted to the Office of the Secretary of State along 
with the election results. 
B. 
Each voting di strict that uses voting machines of any 
type mus t 
have on hand sufficient provisional ballots to 
accommodate 
any 
voter 
whose 
eligibility 
to 
vote 
is 
challenged as well 
as 
any voter 
who 
chooses 
to cast 
a 
hand-counted 
ballot 
in 
lieu 
of 
a 
machine-cast 
or 
machine-tabulated vote. 
A voter who chooses a provisional 
ballot is not reguired to provide justification for that 
choice. 
C. 
If a voter detects a discrepancy in a ballot produced by 
a touch screen voting machine, that voter must be directed, 
by instructions clearly posted adj acent to the machine, to 
call the discrepancy to the attention of election officials 
on duty, who shall place the ballot in a designated envelope 
and note it in a spoiled-ballot log. 
The voter must then be 
allowed to fill out a provisional ballot or to use another 
machine. 
The 
spoiled 
ballots 
must 
be 
counted 
at 
the 
conclusion 
of 
the 
voting 
day, 
and 
the 
totals 
must 
be 
deducted from the vote totals for that voting district. If 
any machine is associated with 5 such discrepancies in a 
given election day, that machine must be immediately taken 
out of service and impounded, 
and all ballots associated 
wi th that machine must, at the conclusion of the vote, be 
segregated from the rest of the ballots and subjected to a 
hand recount to compare with the tally of the machine in 
guestion. 
That recount must serve as the final tally for 
votes cast on that machine. 
3. 
Proscribed voting machines. 
The 
following 
types 
of 
voting machines may not be used in the conduct of state elections: 
A. 
Direct recording electronic voting machines; 
B. 
Punch card voting machines; 
C. 
Mechanical lever voting machines; and 
D. 
Any machine that does not produce a paper ballot except 
as provided in subsection 2, paragraph A. 
S83l. 
Certain electronic connections and Internet voting 
prohibited 
Connection 
of 
any 
voting district via 
the 
Internet 
to 
central vote collection eguipment may not be employed by the 
State. Any network of machines in an individual voting place may 
not be Internet enabled. 
Vote totals for each voting place, 
notwithstanding the method of voting, must be transmitted to the 
Office 
of 
the 
Secretary 
of 
State, 
Bureau 
of 
Corporations, 
Elections 
and 
Commissions 
via either United 
States 
mail 
or 
facsimile. 
Use of the Internet for the casting of votes online 
is prohibited. 
SUMMARY 
This bill sets standards for voting machines and provides 
that each statewide election may be followed within 120 hours of 
the closing of polls by a manual vote recount of up to 2°" of 
voting places that use voting machines, selected at random, to be 
performed as an audit of the accuracy of the machines. 
The bill 
prohibits the connection of any voting district via the Internet 
to central vote collection equipment and prohibits the use of the 
Internet for the casting of votes online. 
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