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Mississippi Regulations § 1-10-9.3 System Functionality

⤴ Up to Chapter 9: Electronic Pollbooks

Regulation Text

1. All EPBs must be secure, be compatible with SEMS, and include a failsafe data recovery procedure for the recovery of voter information on Election Day.
2. The functionality of EPBs must be limited to information specific to the county which has chosen to use the EPBs in its polling places on an election day and its registered voters therein, both active and inactive. The EPBs must not have the functionality so as to enable a user thereof to add a new voter or edit an existing voter record. There shall be no statewide voter access provided to any county through its use of EPBs.
3. All EPBs must have the ability to accurately convert pollbook data as defined above from SEMS to the database to be used on the EPB devices in the polling places. EPBs may not be populated with final election data until ten (10) days immediately prior to an election, thus reflecting the most accurate and up-to-date voter information as maintained in SEMS..
4. All EPBs must afford poll workers the ability to locate all voters registered in the specific county, including active and inactive status voters, for the purposes of directing voters to the correct polling place based upon his/her residence address within the county to cast an Election Day ballot.
5. In addition to a keyboard search function used to locate and "check-in" voters presenting to vote pursuant to Section 23-15-541 , Miss. Code Ann., EPBs also may provide poll workers the ability to locate voters by barcode, magnetic strip, or camera barcode reader. Such functionality, if available, shall not be used in lieu or in place of a manual search function but only in combination, utilized only for those voters who choose to present an identification with barcode or magnetic strip.
6. All EPBs must afford poll workers the ability to mark a voter, including absentee voters, as "VOTED" or enter such other information as may be necessary to indicate a particular voter has voted in the election in accordance with Sections 23-15-541 , 23-15-545 , 23-15-639 , Miss. Code Ann. Similarly, the EPBs must afford poll workers the ability to mark an absentee voter as "VOTED" in accordance with Section 23-15-639 , Miss. Code Ann.
7. Pursuant to Section 23-15-547 , Miss. Code Ann., EPBs may have functionality to capture voters' signatures electronically in lieu of paper receipt books as required by Section 23-15-541 , Miss. Code Ann.
a. If county election officials choose to electronically capture voters' signatures pursuant to Section 23-15-547 , Miss. Code Ann., all captured signatures must be printed on 8.5 x 11 inch paper after the close of the polling place yet prior to the canvass and certification of election results by the respective county election officials. The receipt booklet generated from the capture of electronic signatures from the EPB must provide the name of the polling place and list the voters' names with respective signatures in chronological order.
b. County election officials may choose to equip the EPBs with a thermal printer so as to immediately print the voter's name and signature. The paper generated by a thermal printer must print the name of the voter, signature of the voter, name of the polling place and in which primary election the voter cast a ballot. Conversely, the paper generated by a thermal printer must NOT print any information which is protected against disclosure by Section 23-15-165 , Miss. Code Ann., and other applicable law.
c. The receipt booklet described by subparagraph a. above and/or the paper(s) generated from a thermal printer as described by subparagraph b. above shall be the equivalent of a receipt book for purposes of applicable Mississippi statute. Thus, the same shall be maintained secure in the polling place and, after the close of voting and adjournment, shall be sealed in the ballot box.
d. A separate paper receipt book must be maintained for affidavit voters in accordance with Section 23-15-573 , Miss. Code Ann.
e. A separate paper receipt book may be necessary if EPBs lack the functionality to capture the writing of the names of those absentee voters for whom their ballots were accepted and/or counted by the poll managers pursuant to Section 23-15-639 , Miss. Code Ann.
8. In Primary Elections, all EPBs must afford poll workers the ability to indicate in which primary election each voter casts a ballot.
a. In the event of a Primary Runoff Election, all EPBs must prohibit the issuance of a ballot in one political party's Primary Runoff Election to a voter who previously cast a ballot in a different political party's Primary Election pursuant to Section 23-15-575 , Miss. Code Ann.
b. EPBs must only permit the issuance of a Primary Runoff Election ballot to a voter who either did not previously vote at either Primary Election or to a voter who previously cast a ballot in the same political party's first Primary Election.
9. EPBs may be equipped with an encoder for counties which utilize the TSX voting machine for issuance of a Voter Access Card to only those voters who are eligible to cast a "regular" Election Day ballot in the election.
10. In addition to the issuance of "regular" Election Day ballots, EPBs shall account for the issuance of non-standard Election Day ballots.
a. For counties which utilize the TSX voting machine and EPBs with an encoder, EPBs shall include two radio buttons:
i. "Issue Election Day Ballot" which proceeds to encode a Voter Access Card, and
ii. "Issue Paper Ballot" which proceeds to a separate options menu to issue a "non-standard" paper ballots. Non-standard paper ballots are:
1. Affidavit Ballots
2. Voter ID Affidavit Ballots
3. Emergency Ballots
4. Curbside Ballots
5. Challenged Ballots
6. Challenged/Rejected Ballots.
b. For counties which use Optical Mark Readers, i.e., precinct scanners and which use the TSX voting machine with EPBs without an encoder, EPBs shall likewise include two radio buttons:
i. "Issue Election Day Ballot" which proceeds to permit the issuance of a "regular" Election Day ballot, and
ii. "Issue Affidavit/Challenged Ballot" which proceeds to a separate options menu to issue a "non-standard" paper ballots. Non-standard paper ballots are:
1. Affidavit Ballots
2. Voter ID Affidavit Ballots
3. Challenged Ballots
4. Challenged/Rejected Ballots.
11. EPBs may not have the functionality to permit a poll worker or any other election official to issue a standard, regular, election day ballot to a voter who is not registered in the polling place in which the voter presents to cast a ballot as such voters are legally entitled to only cast an affidavit ballot in accordance with Section 23-15-573 , Miss. Code Ann.
12. Similarly, EPBs may not have the functionality to permit a poll worker or any other election official to issue a standard, regular, election day ballot to a voter who is unable to present an acceptable form of photo identification as required by Section 23-15-563 , Miss. Code Ann., as such voters are legally entitled to only cast an affidavit ballot in accordance with Sections 23-15-563 and 23-15-573 , Miss. Code Ann.
13. EPBs must have the functionality to produce a post-election, paper pollbook on 8.5 x 11 inch paper, listing all voters who cast a ballot per precinct, alphabetically by last name, first, together with the name of the polling place, ballot style voted, and, if a primary election, in which primary election each voter cast a ballot. The post-election pollbook must list all voters who cast "regular" Election Day ballots, accepted absentee ballots and, to the extent possible, non-standard paper ballots.
This post-election pollbook is to be utilized by the election officials to complete the canvass and certification of the election results and retained by the Circuit Clerk's Office. It shall not be secured and sealed in any ballot box at any time.
This post-election pollbook shall be the equivalent of a pollbook book for purposes of applicable Mississippi statute.
14. EPBs shall provide for the quick and accurate upload of voter history into SEMS after each election in which the EPBs are used in lieu of paper-based pollbooks.

History

Adopted 7/19/2019

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