Georgia § 21-2-374 - Proper programming; proper order; testing; supplies.

§ 21-2-374. Proper programming; proper order; testing; supplies.

The superintendent of each county or municipality shall order the proper programming to be placed in each ballot scanner used in any precinct or central tabulating location. On or before the third day preceding a primary or election, including special primaries, special elections, and referendum elections, the superintendent shall have the ballot scanners tested to ascertain that they will correctly count the votes cast for all offices and on all questions. Public notice of the time and place of the test shall be made at least five days prior thereto; provided, however, that, in the case of a runoff, the public notice shall be made at least three days prior thereto. Representatives of political parties and bodies, candidates, news media, and the public shall be permitted to observe such tests. The test shall be conducted by processing a preaudited group of ballots so marked as to record a predetermined number of valid votes for each candidate and on each question and shall include for each office one or more ballots which are improperly marked and one or more ballots which have votes in excess of the number allowed by law in order to test the ability of the ballot scanner to reject such votes. The ballot scanner shall not be approved unless it produces an errorless count. If any error is detected, the cause therefor shall be ascertained and corrected; and an errorless count shall be made before the ballot scanner is approved. The superintendent shall cause the pretested ballot scanners to be placed at the various polling places to be used in the primary or election. The superintendent shall require that each ballot scanner be thoroughly tested and inspected prior to each primary and election in which it is used and shall keep such tested material as certification of an errorless count on each ballot scanner. In counties using central count ballot scanners, the same test shall be repeated immediately before the start of the official count of the ballots and at the conclusion of such count. Precinct ballot scanners shall produce a zero tape prior to any ballots being inserted on the day of any primary or election. In every primary or election, the superintendent shall furnish, at the expense of the county or municipality, all ballots, forms of certificates, and other papers and supplies required under this chapter and which are not furnished by the Secretary of State, all of which shall be in the form and according to the specifications prescribed, from time to time, by the Secretary of State. (Code 1981, § 21-2-374 , enacted by Ga. L. 1998, p. 1231, § 37; Ga. L. 1999, p. 29, § 1; Ga. L. 2000, p. 135, § 1; Ga. L. 2001, p. 240, § 30; Ga. L. 2005, p. 253, § 48/HB 244; Ga. L. 2007, p. 64, § 1/SB 124; Ga. L. 2019, p. 7, § 23/HB 316.) The 2019 amendment, effective April 2, 2019, substituted "ballot scanner" for "tabulator" in subsection (a) and "ballot scanners" for "tabulators", "ballot scanner" for "optical scanning tabulator", and "ballot scanners" for "optical scanning tabulators" throughout subsection (b). Law reviews. - For article on the 2019 amendment of this Code section, see 36 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 81 (2019).