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AN ACT relating to elections. 1
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky: 2
Section 1. KRS 15.243 is amended to read as follows: 3
(1) In addition to the other duties and powers of the Attorney General, he or she shall 4
enforce all of the state's election laws by civil or criminal processes. 5
(2) The Attorney General shall: 6
(a) Devise and administer programs to observe the conduct of elections; 7
(b) Hold public hearings; 8
(c) Establish a toll-free telephone service for the purpose of receiving reports of 9
election law violations. The service shall be operated during regular business 10
hours throughout the year and during the hours which any poll in the state is 11
open on the day of any primary, special election, or regular election; 12
(d) Initiate investigations or investigate alleged violations of election laws at the 13
request of a registered voter or on his or her own motion; 14
(e) Issue subpoenas for the production of any books, papers, correspondence, 15
memoranda or other records, and compel the attendance of witnesses that he 16
or she deems relevant to the purposes of any investigation; 17
(f) Present evidence of alleged violations to a grand jury; and 18
(g) File appropriate complaints in any court of competent jurisdiction. 19
(3) [(a) ]The Attorney General shall be required to begin an independent inquiry for 20
any potential irregularities that may have occurred in each election in not fewer 21
than twelve (12) of Kentucky's counties, to be selected at random in a public 22
process, within twenty (20) days following each primary or regular election. 23
(4) [(b) ]To validate the accuracy and fidelity of the vote tabulation, and fulfill the 24
requirement for a risk-limiting audit, the Attorney General or his or her designee 25
shall randomly select, in all counties of the Commonwealth, at least one (1) ballot 26
scanner and one (1) race tabulated on that scanner for a hand-to-eye recount to 27 UNOFFICIAL COPY 24 RS BR 25
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be performed by each county clerk or his or her designee. The hand-to-eye 1
recount shall be defined and conducted as follows: 2
(a) The sealed ballot boxes and signed return sheet or record from election day, 3
as established in KRS 117.275, shall be provided by the county clerk at an 4
agreed upon location, and shall be accessible for public viewing. The sealed 5
ballots are only to be unsealed in the presence of the county clerk or his or 6
her designee and public witnesses; 7
(b) Two (2) qualified poll workers, not of the same political party, shall be 8
selected from lists of available volunteers, sworn in by the county clerk or 9
his or her designee to do the hand-to-eye recount, and compensated at the 10
local poll worker rate. A video recording device shall be used for recording 11
the event and it may be streamed for public Internet viewing; 12
(c) Ballots are to be aligned for stacking as needed, and then turned over, one 13
(1) at a time, with each volunteer making a tally mark on a tally sheet for 14
each vote cast for each candidate. Any ballots that are disputed or unclearly 15
marked shall be set aside and the county clerk or his or her designee shall 16
determine voter intent; 17
(d) Once the hand-to-eye recount is completed, each volunteer shall add up the 18
tally marks for each candidate, write down a total number of votes for each 19
candidate, and sign the tally sheet. The county clerk or his or her designee 20
shall verify if the two (2) separate hand-to-eye tallies match. If the two (2) 21
hand-to-eye tallies do not match each other, the process must be repeated 22
until the totals are matching. Once this occurs, the county clerk or his or 23
her designee shall also verify the tallies by signing each tally sheet. Then, 24
the ballots must be returned to the ballot box and resealed in the presence of 25
the county clerk or his or her designee and public witnesses; 26
(e) The county clerk or his or her designee shall compare the signed register 27 UNOFFICIAL COPY 24 RS BR 25
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tape total from the vote tabulation machine on election day to the hand-to-1
eye tallies. If there is a discrepancy between the machine count and the 2
hand-to-eye recount, other than instances of voter intent markings outside 3
the designated marking area on the paper ballot that were unreadable by 4
the scanner, or unscanned overvotes resulting from two (2) or more voter 5
intent marks on the same race, the county clerk or his or her designee shall 6
open an election investigation including a review of election day irregularity 7
reports. If more discrepancies are found, the county clerk or his or her 8
designee shall broaden his or her investigation until the reason for the 9
discrepancy is discovered and subsequently resolved. A determination as to 10
whether the outcome of the race could have been impacted by the 11
discrepancies shall be made and any findings shall be reported to the 12
Attorney General; and 13
(f) The county clerk or his or her designee shall examine the electronic or 14
paper sign-in records from the precinct or vote center and validate that the 15
ballots cast and recounted were less than or equal to the sign-in records for 16
that precinct or vote center. If the cast ballots for the precinct or vote center 17
exceed the number of voters on the sign-in records for the precinct or vote 18
center, the county clerk shall open an election investigation and report the 19
findings to the Attorney General. 20
(5) The Attorney General shall promulgate administrative regulations in accordance 21
with KRS Chapter 13A to establish a uniform procedure and timeline for his or her 22
agents to follow when conducting the independent inquiries and randomly 23
selecting tabulators and races for hand-to-eye recounts, with input from the 24
Kentucky County Clerk's Association. The administrative regulations shall also 25
designate the data and forms that shall be requested from each county that is 26
chosen. 27 UNOFFICIAL COPY 24 RS BR 25
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(6) [(c) ]The Attorney General shall report any[his or her] findings to the grand jury 1
of each county where the Attorney General determines that there are legal 2
discrepancies or election irregularities[involved], the chief circuit judge for the 3
circuit in which the county is located, and the appropriate county clerk. 4
(7)[(4)] When the Registry of Election Finance concludes there is probable cause to 5
believe a violation of election laws has occurred, it shall forward the matter to the 6
Attorney General for prosecution. In the event the Attorney General or local 7
prosecutor fails to prosecute the matter in a timely fashion, the registry's attorney 8
may petition the Circuit Court to be appointed as a special prosecutor. Upon such 9
motion timely filed, for good cause shown, the court shall enter an order to that 10
effect. 11
(8)[(5)] When requested by the Attorney General, all state and local agencies and 12
officials, including the Auditor of Public Accounts, Commonwealth's attorneys, 13
county attorneys, Registry of Election Finance, Department of Kentucky State 14
Police, sheriffs' departments and local police shall give all possible assistance to the 15
Attorney General in the performance of his or her duties. 16
Section 2. KRS 117.383 is amended to read as follows: 17
The State Board of Elections shall promulgate administrative regulations under KRS 18
Chapter 13A which shall maintain the maximum degree of correctness, impartiality, and 19
efficiency of the procedures of voting and shall provide methods to: 20
(1) Count, tabulate, and record votes; 21
(2) Place items on any ballot which shall, as closely as possible, follow the 22
requirements pertaining to ballots; 23
(3) Design the ballots to include a system to ensure an accurate record of all voting 24
activities; 25
(4) Instruct voters in the use of the voting system, including any ballot marking device; 26
(5) Provide for checking the accuracy of the voting system; 27 UNOFFICIAL COPY 24 RS BR 25
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(6) Provide necessary supplies, including those necessary for a write-in vote, to ensure 1
voter privacy; 2
[(7) As part of the official canvass, provide for a manual recount of randomly selected 3
precincts representing three percent (3%) to five percent (5%) of the total ballots 4
cast in each election;] 5
(7)[(8)] Provide for the conducting and review of an audit of any component of a 6
voting system or any voting equipment, and a review of any audit log; 7
(8)[(9) (a)] Provide for the conducting and review of an election audit, including a 8
risk-limiting audit through a hand-to-eye recount as described in Section 1 of this 9
Act, [and risk-limiting audit pilot program, all of ]which shall establish the protocol 10
by which ballots are checked, compared, and verified with the results produced by 11
vote tallying equipment to ensure accuracy[. 12
(b) The pilot program shall, at a minimum, include individuals representing the 13
State Board of Elections, the Office of the Secretary of State, and no fewer 14
than five percent (5%) of Kentucky's counties. 15
(c) The risk-limiting audit and risk-limiting audit pilot program shall make the 16
results of its findings available to the public]; 17
(9)[(10)] Provide a method for maintaining sufficient documents, including ballots and 18
records, so that votes can be recounted; 19
(10)[(11)] Ensure the county board of elections produces accurate precinct-by-precinct 20
summaries of tabulation sheets showing the results of each precinct during in-21
person absentee voting, election day voting, and when a county is approved to use a 22
vote center; 23
(11)[(12)] Except as otherwise required in this chapter, all records and papers relating to 24
specified elections be retained for twenty-two (22) months, such documents and 25
records shall be maintained for thirty (30) days following an election; and 26
(12)[(13)] Unless contrary to the Help America Vote Act of 2002, ensure that all federal 27 UNOFFICIAL COPY 24 RS BR 25
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provisional voting shall be conducted in a manner as prescribed by KRS Chapters 1
116 to 120. 2
Section 3. KRS 117.295 is amended to read as follows: 3
(1) For a period of thirty (30) days following any election, the voting equipment shall 4
remain locked against voting, the ballot boxes containing all paper ballots shall 5
remain locked, and the voting equipment and ballot boxes shall be under video 6
surveillance. The system used to conduct the video surveillance shall have enough 7
storage capacity to retain sixty (60) consecutive days of continuous recording data. 8
The voting equipment and the ballot boxes may be opened and all the data and 9
figures therein examined: 10
(a) Upon the order of any court of competent jurisdiction, or judge thereof; 11
(b) By direction of any legislative committee or board authorized and empowered 12
to investigate and report upon contested elections; 13
(c) By a county clerk or his or her designee[board of elections] under the 14
direction of the Attorney General[State Board of Elections] pursuant to a risk-15
limiting audit; or 16
(d) As required to conduct a recount under KRS 120.157. 17
All the data and figures shall be examined by the court, judge, county board of 18
elections, State Board of Elections, or committee in the presence of the officer 19
having the custody of the voting equipment, ballots, and ballot boxes. In the event 20
of a contest of election, the court in which the contest is pending or the committee 21
before which the contest is being heard may, upon motion of any party to the 22
contest, issue an order requiring that the voting equipment, ballots, and ballot boxes 23
shall remain continuously locked for further time as may be reasonable or 24
necessary, with due regard for the preparation of the voting equipment for a 25
succeeding primary, regular election, or special election, but in no event shall the 26
order compel that the voting equipment remain locked to a time within thirty (30) 27 UNOFFICIAL COPY 24 RS BR 25
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days next preceding any approaching primary, regular election, or special election. 1
(2) During the period when the voting equipment and the ballot boxes are required to 2
be kept locked, the keys thereto shall remain in the possession of the county board 3
of elections. After that period, it shall be the duty of the county board of elections to 4
return the keys to the custody of the county clerk. 5