Chap. 51.—An ACT providing for the use of voting machines in cities of
fifty thousand inhabitants or more. - [H B 100]

Approved February 25, 1922.

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, as follows:

1. Councils of certain cities may purchase and order use of voting
machines.—The council of any city in this State, having, according
to the last decennial United States census, a population of fifty
thousand inhabitants or more may purchase and order the use of
voting machines in any ome or more voting precincts within said city.
2. Bonds—Certificates of indebtedness.—The city council, on the
adoption and purchase of a voting machine, may provide for the
payment therefor in such manner as it may deem for the best interest
of such city, and may for that purpose issue bonds, certificates of
indebtedness, or other obligations, which shall be a charge on the city.
Such bonds, certificates or other obligations may be issued with
or without interest, payable at such time or times as the council may
determine, but shall not be issued or sold at less than par. ,

3. Commissioners.—The board of State canvassers shall, ex-
officio, be the State board of voting machine commissioners.

4. Examination of machine—Report of commissioners—Compen-
sation.—Any person or corporation owning or being interested in any
voting machine may call upon the State board of voting machine
commissioners to examine the said machine, and make report to the
secretary of the Commonwealth upon the capacity of the said
machine to register the will of the votes, its accuracy and efficiency.
and with respect to its mechanical perfections and imperfections.
Their report shall be filed in the office of the secretary of the
Commonwealth and shall state whether in their opinion the kind of
machine so examined can be safely used by such voters at elections
under the conditions prescribed in this act. If the report states that
the machine can be so used, it shall be deemed approved by the said
board, and machines of its kind may be adopted for use at elections
as herein provided. No form of voting machine not. so approved may
be used at any election. The State board of voting machine com-
missioners 1s authorized to employ such experts as it may deem neces-
sary to assist in the examination of a machine at a cost not exceed-
ing fifty dollars for each examination, the said cost to be borne by
the person or corporation applying for such.examination.

Construction of machine approved.—A voting machine ap-
proved by the State board of voting machine commissioners must be
so constructed as to provide a sufficient number of pairs of “yes” or
“no” counters with the operating or voting devices therefor, and to
provide facilities for voting for the candidates of at least seven dif-
ferent parties or organizations, must permit a voter to vote for any
person for any office although not nominated as a candidate by any
party or organization, and must permit voting in absolute secrecy.
It must also be so constructed as to prevent voting for more than one
person for the same office, except where the voter is lawfully entitled
to vote for more than one person for that office; and it must afford
him an opportunity to vote for any or all persons for that office
as he is by law entitled to vote for and no more, at the same time
preventing his voting for the same person twice. It may also be
provided with one ballot in each party column or row containing
only the words “presidential electors,” preceded by the party name,
and a vote for such ballot shall operate as a vote for all the candidates
of such party for presidential electors. Such machine shall be so
constructed as to accurately account for every vote cast upon it. It
shall also be constructed so that any voter may readily understand

and understandingly and within the period of one minute cast his
vote for all candidates of his choice. The machine must be provided
with a lock or locks by the use of which any movement of the voting
or registering mechanism is absolutely prevented, and so that it
cannot be tampered with or manipulated for any fraudulent purpose ;
and the machine must be susceptible of being so closed during the
progress of the voting as that no person can see or know the number
of votes registered for any candidate.

6. Experimental use—The council of any such city may provide
for the experimental use at an election in one or more election dis-
tricts, of a machine which it might lawfully adopt, without a formal
adoption thereof; and its use at such election shall be as valid for
all purposes as if it had been lawfully adopted.

7. Duties of local authorities —The electoral board of any city
adopting a voting machine shall, as soon as practicable thereafter,
provide for each polling place one or more voting machines in com-
plete working order, and shall thereafter keep them in repair, and
shall have the custody thereof and of the furniture and equipment
of the polling place when not in use at an election. If it shall be
impracticable to supply each and every election district with a voting
machine or voting machines at any election following such adoption,
as many may be supplied as it is practicable to procure, and the same
may be used in such election district or districts within the city as
the council adopting the same may direct.

8. Ballots—Form.—In any city authorizing the use of voting
machines the electoral board thereof shall furnish to the judges of
election of the several precincts in which such voting machines are
to be used a sufficient number of suitable ballots of such size as will
ht the ballot frame, the arrangement of the names of the candidates
on such ballots to be prescribed by the said electoral board; provided,
that all the provisions of sections one hundred and fifty-five, one
hundred and fifty-six, one hundred and fifty-seven, and one hundred
and fifty-eight of the Code of Virginia not in conflict herewith shall
remain in full force and effect.

9. Sample ballots—The electoral board shall provide for each
voting precinct two sample ballots, which shall be arranged in the
form of a diagram showing the entire front of the voting machine
as it will appear after the official ballots are arranged for voting: on
election day. Such sample ballots shall be open to public inspection
at such polling place during the day of election.

10. Duties of eléction officers—Independent ballots——The judges
of election and clerks of each district shall meet at the voting place
therein, at least three-quarters of an hour before the time set for
the opening of the polls at each election, and shall proceed to arrange
within the guard rail the furniture, stationery and voting machines for
the conduct of the election. The judges of election shall then and there
have the voting machines, ballots and stationery required to be
delivered to thein for such election. The judges shall thereupon cause
at least two instruction cards to be posted conspicuously within the
polling place. If not previously done, they shall arrange, in their
proper place on the voting machine, the ballots containing the names
of the offices to be filled at such election, and the names of the can-
didates nominated therefor. If not previously done, the machine shall
be so arranged as to show that no vote has been cast, and the same
shall not be thereafter operated, except by electors in voting. Before
the polls are open for election, each judge shall carefully examine
every machine and see that no vote has been cast, and the same shall
be subject to inspection of the election officers. Ballots voted for any
person, whose name does not appear on the machine as a nominated.
candidate for office, are herein referred to as independent. ballots.
When two or more persons are to be elected to the same office, and
the machine requires that all independent ballots voted for that office
be deposited in a single receptacle or device, an elector may vote in
or by such receptacle or device for one or more persons whose names
do not appear upon the machine with or without the names of one
or more persons whose names do so appear. With that exception,
and except for presidential electors, no independent ballot shall be
voted for any person for any office whose name appears on the
machine as a nominated candidate for that office; any independent
ballot so voted shall not be counted. An independent ballot must be
cast in its appropriate place on the machine, or it shall be void
and not counted.

11. Voting machine in plain view—Guard rail—The exterior of
the voting machine and every part of the polling place shall be in
plain view of the election officers. The voting machine shall be placed
at least three feet from every wall_and partition of the polling
place, and at least three feet from the guard rail, and at least four
feet from the clerk’s table. A guard rail shall be constructed at
least three feet from the machine, with openings to admit electors
to and from the machine. annaE

12. Method of voting..—After the opening of the polls, the
judges shall not allow any voter to pass within the guard rail until
they escertain that he is duly entitled to vote. Only one voter at a
time shall be permitted to pass within the guard rail to vote. The
operating of the voting machine by the elector while voting shall
be secret and obscured from all other persons except as provided
by this chapter in cases of voting by assisted electors. No voter
shall remain within the voting machine booth longer than one minute,
and if he shall refuse to leave it after the lapse of one minute, he
shall be removed by the judges.

13. Additional instructions.——In case any elector after entering
the voting machine booth shall ask for further instructions concerning
the manner of voting, two judges shall give such instructions to him;
but no judge or other election officer or person assisting an elector
shall. in any manner request, suggest, or seek to persuade or induce
any such elector to vote any particular ticket, or for any particular
candidate, or for or against any particular amendment, question,
or proposition. After receiving such instructions, such elector sha
vote as in the case of an unassisted voter.

14. Injury to machine.—No voter, or other person, shall defac
or injure the voting machine or the ballot thereon. It shall be th
duty of the judges to enforce the provisions of this section. Durin
the entire period of an election, at least one of their number, desig
nated by them from time to time, shall be stationed beside th
entrance to the booth and shall see that it is properly closed afte
a voter has entered it to vote. He shall also, at such intervals a
he may deem proper or necessary, examine the. face of the machin
to ascertain whether it has been defaced, or injured, to detect th
wrongdoer and to repair any injury.

15. Canvass of vote—As soon as the polls of the election ar
closed, the judges of the election thereat shall immediately lock the
voting machine against voting and open the counting compartment:
in the presence of all persons who may be lawfully within the polling
place, and proceed to canvass the vote.

16. Judges to lock machine—The judges of election shall, as
soon as the count is completed and fully ascertained as in this chapter
required, lock the machine against voting, and it shall so remain
for the period of five days.

17. Written statements of election After the total vote for each
candidate has been ascertained, and before leaving the room or vot-
ing place, the judges shall make and sign written statements of
election, as required by the election laws now in force, except that
such statements of the canvass need not contain any ballots except the
independent ballots as herein provided.

18. What statutes apply—Separate ballots.—All of the provisions
of the election law now in force and not inconsistent with the pro-
visions of this chapter shall apply with full force to all cities adopting
the use of the voting machines. Nothing in this chapter shall be
construed as prohibiting the use of a separate ballot for constitutional
amendments and other public measures.

19. Primary elections.—If in any city voting machines shall have
been adopted under the laws of this State, and shall be on hand
for use at regular or special elections, such machines may be used
at primary elections in such city. When so used all provisions of the
laws of this State providing for or applying to their use at general
or special elections not inconsistent with the provisions of this act,
and all provisions of this act as far as applicable, shall apply to the
use of such voting machines at such primary elections,