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119.195 Removing or tampering with ballots.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Effective:July 14, 1992
History: Amended 1992 Ky. Acts ch. 463, sec. 13, effective July 14, 1992.
--Amended 1990 Ky. Acts ch. 48, sec. 75, effective July 13, 1990. -- Amended
1976 (1st Extra. Sess.) Ky. Acts ch. 1, sec. 14. -- Created 1974 Ky. Acts
ch. 130, sec. 80.
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