25-4610. Testing of equipment before election; notice; additional tests; disposition of ballots and programs. (a) The optical scanning equipment may be located at any place within the county approved by the county election officer.

(b) Within five days prior to the date of the election, the county election officer shall have the optical scanning equipment tested to ascertain that the equipment will correctly count the votes cast for all offices and on all questions submitted. Public notice of the time and place of the test shall be given at least 48 hours prior thereto by publication once in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where such equipment is to be used and on the county website, if the county has a website. The test shall be open to representatives of the political parties, candidates, the press and the public. The test shall be conducted by processing a preaudited group of ballots marked as to record a predetermined number of valid votes for each candidate and on each question submitted, and shall include for each office one or more ballots which have votes in excess of the number allowed by law in order to test the ability of the optical scanning equipment to reject such votes. If any error is detected, the cause therefor shall be ascertained and corrected and an errorless count shall be made before the optical scanning equipment is approved. The test shall be repeated within five business days after the completion of the canvass. The programs and ballots shall be sealed, retained and disposed of in the same manner as paper ballots.

History: L. 1982, ch. 158, § 10; L. 2007, ch. 125, § 30; L. 2022, ch. 87, § 22; July 1.