An Act To Ensure the Integrity of Maine's Electoral Process by Requiring Physical Ballots
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 0310
Committee: Legal and Veterans Affairs
Sponsors: BURNS, PINGREE, MITCHELL, CANAVAN, CARTER, CRESSEY, DRISCOLL, EMERY, GREELEY, HILL, WHEELER
Amends: 21-A MRSA §812, 21-A MRSA §812-A, 21-A MRSA §812-B

Legislative Document 
No. 310 
H.P.254 
House of Representatives, January 19,2007 
An Act To Ensure the Integrity of Maine's Electoral Process by 
Requiring Physical Ballots 
Reference to the Committee on Legal and Veterans Affairs suggested and ordered printed. 
Presented by Representative BURNS of Berwick. 
'7J1~1?7.~ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Cosponsored by Representative PINGREE of North Haven, Senator MITCHELL of Kennebec 
and Representatives: CANAVAN of Waterville, CARTER of Bethel, CRESSEY of Cornish, 
DRISCOLL of Westbrook, EMERY of Cutler, GREELEY of Levant, HILL of York, 
WHEELER of Kittery. 
Printed nn reqckd paptr 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 21-A MRSA §812, sub-§10, as amended by PL 2005, c. 445, § 1, is 
repealed. 
Sec. 2. 21-A MRSA §812-A, sub-§l, as amended by PL 2005, c. 445, §2, is 
further amended to read: 
1. Accessible voting equipment at each polling place. The Secretary of State, in 
compliance with the voting accessibility requirements of the federal Help America Vote 
Act of 2002, shall provide one direct recording electronic voting machine, or other voting 
system equipped for individuals with disabilities, for use at each polling place used in the 
conduct of state elections. Such machines must produce permanent paper records that 
provide a manual audit capacity for the machines and must also provide voters with audio 
functions that enable the voters to verify their ballots aurally before the votes are cast, and 
all such machines must meet the requirements of section 812, subsection 10 812-B unless 
the Secretary of State is unable to procure machines that the Secretary of State determines 
are adequate to meet the requirements of this section and section sections 812 and 812-B 
in time to comply with the Help America Vote Act of2002. 
Additional accessible voting machines may be used in the conduct of state elections, but 
those machines must meet the requirements set forth in section sections 812 and 812-B. 
Sec. 3. 21-A MRSA §812-B is enacted to read: 
§812-B. 
Voting machine standards 
In addition to the requirements prescribed in section 812, 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 votes must be fully accessible to the office of the Secretary 
of State and agents of that office. Any computer software relating to 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 
electronic 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 
Department of the Secretary of State, Bureau of Corporations, Elections and 
Commissions on a monthly basis. The 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. Each voter shall personally review and deliver the physical ballot to an 
official ballot box. If a touch-screen voting machine is used, the voting machine must 
produce a legible, large-print physical ballot so that each voter may verify that voter's 
electoral choices before it is placed in the official ballot box. Each physical ballot must 
also identify_the individual touch-screen voting machiDc Jl1.~Lpr09_uc~~LitJ)ULml!Y..!1ot 
identify the voter. 
A. 
Physical ballots may be an optional feature only of direct recording electronic 
voting machines dedicated to accommodate the needs of sight-impaired voters or 
other voters with disabilities for whom wardens determine the use of ballot-free 
voting is appropriate. The option of using a ballot-free function on a touch-screen 
voting machine may be executed only by the warden on duty at an individual voting 
place upon request of a voter with a disability and only on a direct recording 
electronic voting machine dedicated for access by voters with disabilities. A total 
count of such ballot-free uses on dedicated direct recording electronic voting 
machines, compiled in a manner that maintains complete voter anonymity, must be 
kept at each voting district and transmitted to the office of the Secretary of State 
along with the election results. 
B. 
Each voting district that uses voting machines of any type must 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 required to provide justification for that choice. 
C. If a voter detects a discrepancy in a physical ballot produced by a touch-screen 
voting machine, that voter must be directed, by instructions clearly posted adjacent to 
the voting machine, to call the discrepancy to the attention of election officials on 
duty, who shall place the physical 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 voting 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 voting machine is associated with 5 such discrepancies in a given 
election day, that voting machine must be immediately taken out of service and 
impounded, and all physical ballots associated with that voting machine must, at the 
conclusion of the vote, be segregated from the rest of the physical ballots and 
subjected to a hand recount to compare with the tally of the voting machine m 
question. That recount must serve as the final tally for votes cast on that machine. 
SUMMARY 
This biII requires all voting machines used by voters to cast their votes in an election 
to provide a physical ballot that is the equivalent of or superior to a hand-cast ballot and 
clearly reflects the intent of the voter. The biII also prescribes the process to be followed 
if the voter determines that the physical ballot is not consistent with the vote cast using 
the voting machine.