H. B. 406
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Thompson, and Delegate Armstead)
[By Request of the Executive]
[Introduced November 17, 2009; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §3-3B-1, §3-3B-2,
§3-3B-3 and §3-3B-4, all relating to voting by members of the
military and citizens residing outside the United States;
creating a pilot program for military and overseas voters for
the 2010 primary election; allowing a limited number of
counties to participate in the pilot project; setting
participation requirements; providing for project selection by
the Secretary of State; and setting minimum voting system
requirements.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new article, designated §3-3B-1, §3-3B-2,
§3-3B-3
and §3-3B-4, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3B. UNIFORMED SERVICES AND OVERSEAS VOTER PILOT PROGRAM.
§3-3B-1. Short title.
This article shall be known as the "Uniformed Services and Overseas Voter Pilot Program."
§3-3B-2. Uniformed services members and overseas voter pilot
program.
This article authorizes pilot projects that will allow a
limited number of counties to use available voting technology for
the purposes of voting by absent uniformed services members and
overseas citizens, as defined by 42 U.S.C. §1973ff, et seq.
Participation in pilot programs will assist counties and the state
in identifying areas for potential modification as larger pilot
projects of this type begin to be authorized by the federal
government under the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act
Pub. L. No. 111-84 (2009). This pilot project is only applicable
to the primary election to be held on May 11, 2010, and for no
other primary, general, special or municipal election.
§3-3B-3. Process for selection by Secretary of State.
(a) On or before the close of business on January 8, 2010, any
county interested in participating in the pilot program must submit
a proposal to the Secretary of State. The proposal shall include:
(1) The name of the vendor or vendors, if any, whose voting
system will be implemented for voting by uniformed military and
overseas citizen voters;
(2) The anticipated cost to the county of implementing the
proposal;
(3) The manner in which the voting system complies with the
provisions of section four of this article; and
(4) An option for the voter to choose not to vote using the pilot voting system, but rather by mail, fax or e-mail at the
voter's discretion as provided for in sections five and five-b,
article three, chapter three of this code.
(b) The Secretary of State shall evaluate each proposal and
may approve those proposals which meet the criteria described in
section four of this article.
(c) On or before January 29, 2010, each county that has
submitted a proposal shall be notified by the Secretary of State
that they have either been approved or denied participation in the
pilot program.
§3-3B-4. Minimum requirements for pilot program voting systems.
Provisions of sections eight and nine, article four-a, chapter
three of this code notwithstanding, a voting system may be approved
by the Secretary of State for use in the pilot program authorized
by this article if it meets the following minimum requirements:
(1) It secures or ensures the voter absolute secrecy in the
act of voting or, at the voter's election, provides for open
voting;
(2) It is constructed to ensure that no person, except in
instances of open voting as provided in this section, can see or
know for whom any voter has voted or is voting;
(3) It permits each voter to vote for all persons and offices
for whom and which he or she is lawfully entitled to vote, to vote
for as many persons for an office as he or she is lawfully entitled
to vote for, and to vote for or against any question upon which he
or she is lawfully entitled to vote. The automatic tabulating equipment used in electronic voting systems shall reject choices
recorded on any ballot if the number of choices exceeds the number
to which a voter is entitled;
(4) It permits each voter to deposit, write in, affix upon a
ballot, card, envelope or other medium to be provided for that
purpose, ballots containing the names of official write-in
candidates, as provided for in section four-a, article six, chapter
three of this code, for whom he or she desires to vote whose names
do not appear upon the ballots or ballot labels, when appropriate;
(5) It permits each voter to change his or her vote for any
candidate and upon any question appearing upon the ballots or
ballot labels up to the time when his or her ballot is cast by
electronic means;
(6) It contains a program deck consisting of cards that are
sequentially numbered or consisting of a computer program disk,
diskette, tape or other programming media containing sequentially
numbered program instructions. The program deck shall be coded or
otherwise protected from tampering or substitution of the media or
program instructions by unauthorized persons and capable of
tabulating all votes cast in each election;
(7) It accurately records and counts all votes cast for each
candidate and for and against each question appearing upon the
ballots or ballot labels;
(8) It, where applicable, is provided with means for sealing
or electronically securing the vote recording device to prevent its
use and to prevent tampering with ballot labels, both before the polls are open or before the operation of the vote recording device
for an election is begun and immediately after the polls are closed
or after the operation of the vote recording device for an election
is completed; and
(9) It has the capacity to contain the names of candidates
constituting the tickets of at least nine political parties and
accommodates the wording of at least fifteen questions.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create the Uniformed
Services and Overseas Voter Pilot Program which authorizes pilot
projects that will authorize the use of certain voting systems by
absent uniformed services members and overseas citizens voting in
the May 11, 2010, primary election.
Chapter three, article three-b is new; therefore, underscoring
and strike-throughs have been omitted.
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