1 SB235
2 208822-2
3 By Senator Roberts
4 RFD: Governmental Affairs
5 First Read: 23-FEB-21
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1 208822-2:n:02/23/2021:SLU/ma LSA2020-2402R1
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8 SYNOPSIS: Under existing law, county governing bodies
9 provide for installation of electronic voting
10 machines at designated voting places throughout
11 each election precinct.
12 This bill would prohibit the operation of
13 any voting machine except on the inside of an
14 enclosed building designated as a voting place.
15 This bill would further prohibit an election
16 official or poll worker from taking any ballot into
17 or out of a voting place, except in the performance
18 of as part of established election procedures for
19 transporting ballots.
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21 A BILL
22 TO BE ENTITLED
23 AN ACT
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25 Relating to elections; to amend Section 17-6-4, Code
26 of Alabama 1975, providing for voting places; to prohibit
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1 curbside voting of voting machines outside of enclosed
2 buildings designated as voting places.
3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:
4 Section 1. Section 17-6-4, Code of Alabama 1975, is
5 amended to read as follows:
6 "17-6-4.
7 "(a) Except as may be provided further by local
8 election laws or by the electronic vote counting statutes, the
9 county governing bodies shall designate the places of holding
10 elections in the precincts established hereunder, and,
11 whenever the county has alphabetically divided the list of
12 registered qualified voters of a precinct into groups, it
13 shall designate not only the voting place but also the number
14 of electronic voting machines at each voting place in the
15 precinct, being sure that it designates an electronic voting
16 machine for each group of qualified voters. The county
17 governing body is specifically authorized to shall provide for
18 installing as many electronic voting machines as are needed in
19 each precinct, and the electronic voting machines may be
20 installed at one designated voting place or there may be more
21 than one voting place designated and such number of electronic
22 voting machines installed at each place as needed to provide
23 for the voters authorized to vote at each place. No electronic
24 voting machine, or voting machine of any kind, shall be
25 installed or operated except as designated for installation
26 and operation during an election within the interior of an
27 enclosed building designated as a voting place, pursuant to
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1 this section. No election officer or poll worker shall take a
2 ballot into or out of any voting place, except in the
3 performance of his or her authorized or official duties that
4 include only the pre-election and post-election transporting
5 of ballots to and from voting places as part of established
6 election procedures. The county governing body shall file with
7 the judge of probate of the county and with the board of
8 registrars, along with a copy of its order fixing the
9 boundaries of a precinct, the names of voting places
10 designated for voting, indicating in those precincts in which
11 the voters have been alphabetically divided into groups and
12 the voting places and electronic voting machines at which each
13 alphabetical group shall vote, and shall also post the list of
14 voting places at the county courthouse.
15 "(b) The judge of probate, within five days after
16 the county governing body of any county files with him or her
17 the boundaries of the election precincts and the names of the
18 voting places therein, shall give notice of the same by
19 publishing the same in some publication in a newspaper of
20 general circulation published in the county and shall have the
21 same posted by the sheriff at the courthouse and at two public
22 places in the election district of the precinct. The notice
23 shall describe the election precincts by their numbers and
24 shall specify the place therein where elections are to be
25 held.
26 "(c) Where election precincts have been subdivided
27 into voting districts hereunder, no voter in any election held
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1 thereafter shall vote at any place other than the voting
2 district in which the voter at the time is registered as a
3 qualified elector. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any county,
4 by local law, may establish voting centers by combining voters
5 from two or more precincts in order to create a voting center
6 in order to facilitate, or reduce costs, for elections.
7 "(d) Except as may be provided further by local
8 election laws or by the electronic vote counting statutes
9 laws, whenever places of voting places are once designated and
10 established as required by this chapter section, the voting
11 places for precincts shall not be changed within three months
12 before an election is to be held. When the boundaries of
13 election precincts are changed, the county governing body
14 shall forthwith designate and establish at least one voting
15 place for every 2,400 voters in each election precinct so
16 created. Places of voting Voting places shall be the same for
17 all elections, whether primary, general, or special, or
18 federal, state, district, or county.
19 "(e) The courthouse is the voting place of holding
20 elections in the precinct in which it is situated unless
21 another place for that purpose is designated by the county
22 governing body. Elections must be held at such places in the
23 other precincts as may be designated hereafter by the county
24 governing body."
25 Section 2. This act shall become effective
26 immediately following its passage and approval by the
27 Governor, or its otherwise becoming law.
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Statutes affected:
Introduced: 17-6-4, 17-6-4