Bill Text: VA SB1254 | 2017 | Regular Session | Prefiled
Bill Title: Voting machines; Department of Elections shall coordinate post-election risk-limiting audit, report.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2017-03-13 - Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0367) [SB1254 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2017-SB1254-Prefiled.html
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §24.2-671.1 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§24.2-671.1. Audits of ballot scanner machines.
A. The State Board Department of Elections shall be authorized to conduct a
post-election audit annually
of one or more the ballot scanner machines in one or more precincts in one or more localities
with respect to an election in which the margin between the top two candidates
for each office on the ballot exceeds 10 percent, with the consent of the
electoral board of the locality, notwithstanding any other provision of law to
the contrary in use in the
Commonwealth. The localities
selected for the audit shall be chosen at random with
every locality participating in the Department's
annual audit at least once during a five-year period. The
purposes of the audits shall be to study the accuracy of ballot scanner
machines.
B. No audit conducted pursuant to
this section shall commence until after the election has
been certified and the period to initiate a recount has expired without the
initiation of a recount, unless such audit is
being conducted as part of a voting system certification.
An audit shall have no effect on the election results.
C. All audits conducted pursuant to
this section shall be performed in accordance with the procedures
prescribed by the State Board under the supervision and with the cooperation of
the local electoral board and general registrar.
The procedures established by the State Board shall include its procedures for
conducting hand counts of ballots. Candidates and political parties may have
representatives observe the audits.
D. At the conclusion of each audit, the
local electoral board
Department shall announce publicly submit report
on the results of the audit of the machines in its jurisdiction to the State Board. The announcement report shall include a
comparison of the audited election results and the initial tally for each
machine audited,
and an analysis of any detected discrepancies.