2020 Georgia Code
Title 21 - Elections
Chapter 2 - Elections and Primaries Generally
Article 15 - Miscellaneous Offenses
§ 21-2-587. Frauds by Poll Officers

Any poll officer who willfully:

1. Makes a false return of the votes cast at any primary or election;
2. Deposits fraudulent ballots in the ballot box or certifies as correct a false return of ballots;
3. Registers fraudulent votes upon any voting machine or certifies as correct a return of fraudulent votes cast upon any voting machine;
4. Makes any false entries in the electors list;
5. Destroys or alters any ballot, voter's certificate, or electors list;
6. Tampers with any voting machine, direct recording electronic (DRE) equipment, electronic ballot marker, or tabulating machine or device;
7. Prepares or files any false voter's certificate not prepared by or for an elector actually voting at such primary or election; or
8. Fails to return to the officials prescribed by this chapter, following any primary or election, any keys of a voting machine; ballot box; general or duplicate return sheet; tally paper; oaths of poll officers; affidavits of electors and others; record of assisted voters; numbered list of voters; electors list; voter's certificate; spoiled and canceled ballots; ballots deposited, written, or affixed in or upon a voting machine; DRE, electronic ballot marker, or tabulating machine memory cards; or any certificate or any other paper or record required to be returned under this chapter

   shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than one nor more than ten years or to pay a fine not to exceed $100,000.00, or both.

(Orig. Code 1863, § 1238; Code 1868, § 1319; Code 1873, § 1292; Code 1882, § 1292; Civil Code 1895, § 74; Civil Code 1910, § 84; Code 1933, § 34-1501; Code 1933, § 34-1921, enacted by Ga. L. 1964, Ex. Sess., p. 26, § 1; Ga. L. 1985, p. 206, § 1; Ga. L. 1998, p. 295, § 1; Ga. L. 2003, p. 517, § 65; Ga. L. 2007, p. 536, § 11/SB 40; Ga. L. 2010, p. 914, § 33/HB 540; Ga. L. 2019, p. 7, § 49/HB 316.)

The 2019 amendment, effective April 2, 2019, in paragraph (6), inserted ", electronic ballot marker", and substituted "tabulating machine" for "tabulating computer"; and, in paragraph (8), substituted semicolons for commas throughout, and inserted ", electronic ballot marker, or tabulating machine" near the end.

- Poll officers, § 21-2-90 et seq.

- Spoiled ballot definition, Official Compilation of the Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia, Georgia Election Code, Absentee Voting, § 183-1-14-.07.

- For article on the 2019 amendment of this Code section, see 36 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 81 (2019).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Superintendent knowingly misstating votes.

- If the number of votes was knowingly and falsely misstated by a superintendent of an election, the superintendent has failed to discharge a duty imposed by law, and the superintendent was liable to be prosecuted under the provisions of the penal Code for a misdemeanor, although this section also applied. Black v. State, 36 Ga. App. 286, 136 S.E. 334 (1927).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 26 Am. Jur. 2d, Elections, § 449.

- 29 C.J.S., Elections, §§ 568 et seq., 577 et seq.

- Admissibility of parol evidence of election officials to impeach election returns, 46 A.L.R.2d 1385.