25-2810. Control of voting places; procedure in counting ballots; no ballots counted from ballot boxes containing less than 50 ballots; opening and closing polls; certification of election results.

25-2810

Chapter 25.--ELECTIONS
Article 28.--ELECTION BOARDS

      25-2810.   Control of voting places; procedure in counting ballots; noballots counted from ballot boxes containing less than 50 ballots; openingand closing polls; certification of election results.(a) Each election board shall have control of its voting place and electionprocedure under the sole supervision of the secretary of state, county electionofficer, deputy county election officers and the supervising judge. Theelection board shall open the polls at the time specified by the countyelection officer. The judges shall have charge of the ballots and thesupervisingjudge shall designate one of their number to furnish them to voters as providedby law.

      (b)   Any election board of five or more members may be dividedbythe county election officer into a receiving board and a counting board,and the receiving board shall furnish and receive ballots and record thenames of voters. The receiving board shall have control of the voting placeand election procedure under the sole supervision and direction of thesecretaryof state, county election officer, deputy county election officers, andthe supervising judge. The receiving board shall open and close the pollsat the time specified by the county election officer.

      (c)   The counting board or boards, if any, shall proceed to their votingplace after the opening of the polls at the hour specified by the countyelection officer.

      (d)   At national and state elections, both primary and general, the countingboard, if any, shall take charge of one of the ballot boxes containing thenational and state ballots already cast in that precinct. It shall retireto a partitioned room or space in the voting place provided for that purposeand there proceed to count and tabulate the ballots cast as it shall findthem deposited in the national and state ballot box. The receiving boardshall continue to receive the votes of electors in another national andstate ballot box, and in a county and township ballot box until such timeas the counting board shall have finished counting and tabulating the ballotscast in the first national and state ballot box. They shall then exchangethe first box for the second national and state box, and so continue untilthey have counted and tabulated all the votes cast on that election dayin the national and state ballot boxes. Counting boards may, in like manner,count the ballots in other ballot boxes when only an unsubstantial numberof national and state ballots have been cast and are uncounted, and likewiseat elections where there are no national and state ballots. Prior to theclosing of the polls, no ballots shallbe counted from any ballot box containing less than 50 ballots. No result ofthe count shall be made known to any person not on the election board, exceptthe county election officer or such officer's deputies,until after the timeto close the polls.

      (e)   At city and school elections, both primary and general, the countingboard, if any, shall take charge of a ballot box containing one kind ofballot. Such board shall then proceed, as in national and state elections,to count and tabulate the ballots cast. When the ballots in such ballotbox have been counted, the box shall be exchanged for another ballot boxand so continue until all of the ballots of every kind are counted andtabulated.

      (f)   When the hour arrives for closing the polls, the election board,includingboth the receiving and counting boards if any, shall continue in the workof counting, tabulating and summarizing the votes, and making theircertificatesas to the result of the election.

      (g)   All of the judges and clerks at the same voting place on duty when thepolls close shall unitein certifying the election results as provided in K.S.A. 25-3006 andamendments thereto.

      (h) (1)   In accordance with rules and regulations adopted by thesecretary of state, the county election officer may allocate staffingresourcesas needed at the voting placeexcept that two members of the election board, one of which is the supervisingjudge, shall be on duty for the entire time the polls are open.

      (2)   The secretary of state may adopt rules and regulations to implement theprovisions of this section.

      History:   L. 1968, ch. 406, § 18;L. 1969, ch. 193, § 6;L. 1975, ch. 204, § 7;L. 1991, ch. 103, § 2;L. 1995, ch. 192, § 52;L. 2007, ch. 125, § 6; July 1.