2013 Vermont Statutes
Title 17 Elections
Chapter 51 CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS
§ 2493 Rules for use of voting machines

2493. Rules for use of voting machines

(a) The secretary of state shall adopt rules governing the use and the selection of any voting machine in the state. These rules shall include requirements that:

(1) All municipalities that have voted to use a voting machine shall use a uniform voting machine approved by the secretary of state.

(2) The secretary of state shall provide for the security of voting machines at all times. Voting machines, not including the ballot box portion, shall be locked in a vault or a secure location at all times when not in use. The secretary of state may conduct a random postelection audit of any polling place election results for a primary or general election within 30 days of the election. If the secretary determines that a random audit shall be conducted of the election results in a town or city, the town clerk shall direct two members of the board of civil authority to transport the ballot bags to the office of the secretary of state not later than 10:00 a.m. on the morning when the secretary has scheduled the audit. The secretary shall open the ballot bags and conduct the audit in the same manner as ballots are counted under sections 2581 through 2588 of this title. The secretary of state shall publicly announce the results of the audit as well as the results from the original return of the vote. If the secretary finds that the audit indicates that there was possible fraud in the count or return of votes, the secretary shall refer the results to the attorney general for possible prosecution.

(3) All voting machines shall be set to reject a ballot that contains an overvote and provide the voter the opportunity to correct the overvote, have the ballot declared spoiled, and obtain another ballot. If an early voter absentee ballot contains an overvote, the elections official shall override the voting machine and count all races except any race that contains an overvote.

(4) All voting machines shall be set not to reject undervotes.

(5) Establish a process for municipalities using voting machines, whereby markings on ballots that are unreadable by a machine may be transferred by a pair of election officials, who are not members of the same political party, to ballots that are readable by the machine.

(b) Each voting machine shall be tested using official ballots that are marked clearly as "test ballots" at least 10 days prior to an election. (Added 1977, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), 1; amended 1979, No. 200 (Adj. Sess.), 51; 2001, No. 5, 5; 2003, No. 59, 22; 2003, No. 94 (Adj. Sess.), 2; 2007, No. 54, 8.)