Senate Bill 2595

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 23-15-523, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REMOVE THE REQUIREMENT FOR RESOLUTION BOARD MEMBERS TO ATTEND ELECTION MANAGER TRAINING; TO REQUIRE RESOLUTION BOARD MEMBERS TO COMPLETE TRAINING OF UP TO THREE HOURS ON THEIR DUTIES TO REVIEW, HANDLE AND COUNT DAMAGED OR DEFECTIVE BALLOTS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 23-15-523, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

23-15-523. (1) All proceedings at the counting center shall be under the direction of the commissioners of elections or officials in charge of the election, and shall be conducted under the observations of the public, but no persons except those authorized for the purpose shall touch any ballot. All persons who are engaged in processing and counting of the ballots shall be deputized in writing and take oath that they will faithfully perform their assigned duties.

(2) The commissioners of elections or the officials in charge of the election shall appoint qualified electors who have received the training required by subsection (11) of this section to serve as judges on the "resolution board." An odd number of not less than three (3) members shall be appointed to the resolution board. The members of the board shall take the oath provided in Section 268, Mississippi Constitution of 1890. All ballots that have been rejected by the OMR tabulating equipment and that are damaged or defective, blank or overvoted will be reviewed by * * *~~said~~ the board. Commissioners of election, candidates who are on the ballot at the election and the parents, siblings or children of * * *~~such~~ a candidate shall not be appointed to the resolution board. If the election is not a primary election, members of the party executive committees shall not be appointed to the resolution board unless members of all of the party executive committees who have a candidate on the ballot are appointed to the resolution board.

(3) (a) If any ballot is damaged or defective so that it cannot be properly counted by the OMR tabulating equipment, the ballot will be deposited in an envelope provided for that purpose marked "RESOLUTION BOARD." All such ballots shall be carefully handled so as to avoid altering, removing or adding any mark on the ballot.

(b) The commissioners of election or the officials in charge of the election shall have the judges on the resolution board manually count any damaged or defective ballots, who shall determine the intent of the voter and record the vote consistent with this determination.

(c) As an alternative to the procedure provided for in paragraph (b) of this subsection, the resolution board may be instructed by the officials in charge of the election to prepare a duplicate to the damaged or defective ballot in the following manner:

(i) The resolution board shall prepare a duplicate to the original damaged or defective ballot marked identically to the original.

(ii) The resolution board shall mark the first original they examine as "Original #1" and the duplicate of this original as "Duplicate #1." Subsequent originals and duplicates shall be likewise marked and numbered consecutively so the duplicate of each original can be identified. Duplicate ballots shall be stamped in a different manner from the original ballots so that they may be easily distinguished from the originals.

(iii) The duplicate ballots prepared pursuant to this paragraph shall be counted by the OMR tabulating equipment.

(4) Ballots that have been rejected by the OMR tabulating equipment for appearing to be "blank" shall be examined to verify if they are blank or were marked with a "nondetectable" marking device. If it is determined that the ballot was marked with a nondetectable device, the resolution board may mark over the voter's mark with a detectable marking device.

(5) All ballots that are rejected by the OMR tabulating equipment and which contain overvotes shall be inspected by the resolution board. Regarding those ballots upon which an overvote appears and voter intent cannot be determined by inspection of the resolution board, the officials in charge of the election may use the OMR tabulating equipment in determining the vote in the races which are unaffected by the overvote. All other ballots which are overvoted shall be counted manually following the provisions of this section at the direction of the officials in charge of the election. If for any reason it becomes impracticable to count all or a part of the ballots with the OMR tabulating equipment, the officials in charge may direct that they be counted manually, and voter intent shall be determined by following the provisions of this section. The return printed by the OMR tabulating equipment to which have been added the manually tallied ballots, which shall be duly certified by the officials in charge of the election, shall constitute the official return of each voting precinct. Unofficial and incomplete returns may be released during the count. Upon the completion of the counting, the official returns shall be open to the public.

(6) When the resolution board reviews any OMR ballot in which the voter has failed to fill in the arrow, oval, circle or square for a candidate or a ballot measure in accordance with the ballot instruction, the resolution board shall, if the intent of the voter can be ascertained, count the vote if:

(a) The voter marks the ballot with a "cross" (X) or "checkmark" (√) and the lines that form the mark intersect within or on the line of the arrow, oval, circle or square by the ballot measure or the name of the candidate.

(b) The voter blackens the arrow, oval, circle or square adjacent to the ballot measure or the name of the candidate in pencil or ink and the blackened portion extends beyond the boundaries of the arrow, oval, circle or square.

(c) The voter marks the ballot with a "cross" (X) or "checkmark" (√) and the lines that form the mark intersect adjacent to the ballot measure or the name of the candidate.

(d) The voter underlines the ballot measure or the name of a candidate.

(e) The voter draws a line from the arrow, oval, circle or square to a ballot measure or the name of a candidate.

(f) The voter draws a circle or oval around the ballot measure or the name of the candidate.

(g) The voter draws a circle or oval around the arrow, oval, circle or square adjacent to the ballot measure or the name of the candidate.

(7) The resolution board, when inspecting an OMR ballot which contains or appears to contain one or more overvotes, appears to be damaged or defective, or is rejected by the OMR tabulating equipment for any reason or cannot be counted by the OMR tabulating equipment, shall make its determination in accordance with the following:

(a) When an elector casts more votes for any office or measure than he or she is entitled to cast at an election, all the elector's votes for that office or measure are invalid and the elector is deemed to have voted for none of them except as provided in paragraph (b) of this subsection. If an elector casts less votes for any office or measure than he or she is entitled to cast at an election, all votes cast by the elector shall be counted, but no vote shall be counted more than once.

(b) If an elector casts more than one (1) vote for the same candidate for the same office, the first vote is valid and the remaining votes are invalid.

(c) No write-in vote for a candidate whose name is printed on the ballot shall be regarded as defective due to misspelling a candidate's name, or by abbreviation, addition or omission or use of a wrong initial in the name, as long as the intent of the voter can be ascertained.

(d) In any case where a voter writes in the name of a candidate for President of the United States whose name is printed on the general election ballot, the failure by the voter to write in the name of a candidate for the Office of Vice President of the United States on the general election ballot does not invalidate the elector's vote for the slate of electors for any candidate whose name is written in for the Office of President of the United States.

(e) For any ballot measure in which the words "for" or "against" are printed on a ballot, if the voter shall write the word "for" or the word "against" instead of or in addition to marking the ballot in accordance with the ballot instruction in the space adjacent to the preprinted words "for" or "against," the resolution board shall, in reviewing such ballot, count the vote in accordance with the voter's handwritten preference, unless the voter marks the ballot in the space adjacent to the preprinted words "for" or "against" contrary to the handwritten preference, in which case no vote shall be recorded for such ballot in regard to the ballot measure.

(f) For any ballot measure in which the words "yes" or "no" are printed on a ballot, if the voter shall write the word "yes" or the word "no" instead of or in addition to marking the ballot in accordance with the ballot instructions in the space adjacent to the preprinted words "yes" or "no," the resolution board shall, in reviewing such ballot, count the vote in accordance with the voter's handwritten preference, unless the voter marks the ballot in the space adjacent to the preprinted words "yes" or "no" contrary to the handwritten preference, in which case no vote shall be recorded for such ballot in regard to the ballot measure.

(8) OMR tabulating equipment shall be programmed, calibrated, adjusted and set up to reject ballot cards that appear to be damaged or defective. Any switch, lever or feature on OMR tabulating equipment that enables or permits the OMR tabulating equipment to override the rejection of damaged or defective ballot cards so that such cards will not be reviewed by the resolution board, shall not be utilized.

(9) Ballots shall be manually counted by the resolution board only when the ballots are:

(a) Properly before the resolution board due to being rejected by the OMR tabulating equipment because the ballots appear to be damaged or defective or are rejected by the OMR equipment for any other reason; or

(b) Properly before the resolution board due to a malfunction in the OMR tabulating equipment.

(10) The resolution board shall make and keep a record regarding the handling and counting of all ballots inspected under this section.

(11) * * * Not less than five (5) days before each election, the county executive committee or the commissioners of election, as appropriate, shall conduct training sessions of no more than three (3) hours that instruct resolution board members on their duties to review, handle and count damaged or defective ballots as required under this section.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2015.