16-564. Opening, exhibiting and locking ballot box before receipt of ballots; removal and opening of box

A. Before receiving any ballots the election board, in the presence of the persons assembled at the polling place, shall open, exhibit and lock the ballot box, and thereafter it shall not be removed from the polling place or presence of the bystanders until all ballots are counted, nor opened until after the polls are finally closed, except in the case of an emergency that renders the polling place unusable to the point where it can no longer function as a polling place because law enforcement or other emergency personnel have ordered that the polling place be evacuated or as determined by the officer in charge of elections to allow voting to continue while awaiting an evacuation order from law enforcement or other emergency personnel.

B. If a locked ballot box must be moved from a polling place due to an emergency, at least two members of the election board from that polling place who are not members of the same political party shall accompany the locked ballot box to a new polling place designated by the officer in charge of elections, subject to the following:

1. If practicable and available, a law enforcement officer shall aid in the transfer of the locked ballot box.

2. If two members of the election board from that polling place are not available, one member of the election board and one law enforcement officer may accompany the locked ballot box to the new polling place.

C. If a ballot box was moved due to an emergency, two additional board members shall verify whether the locked ballot box arrived at the new polling place location and that it was not opened or damaged.

D. All election board members who accompanied the locked ballot box to the new location and the one or two election board members who verified the ballot box's arrival shall file a report with the officer in charge of elections that describes the actions taken by the election board members. This report shall be filed on the day of the emergency.

E. On the day that an emergency occurs as prescribed in subsection A, all election board members, including those who aided in the transfer and verification of the locked ballot box, shall indicate on the official documents containing their oath whether they witnessed the transfer of the ballot box and whether the ballot box remained locked.

F. If during the course of an election day the ballot box can no longer accommodate additional ballots, the board members may remove a sufficient number of ballots from the ballot box and shall place the removed ballots into the case that will be used for the transfer of the ballots to the officer in charge of elections.  The inspector and both judges shall oversee the transfer and the following shall apply:

1. An immediate count of the number of ballots removed shall be made by the election board members and a sheet indicating the count and signed by the board members supervising the count shall be placed in the transfer case with the removed ballots and shall be kept sealed for the remainder of the election day.

2. Once the removed ballots are sealed in the transfer case, the original ballot box shall be relocked and voting may continue.

3. At the close of the polls, the removed ballots and the ballots in the locked ballot box shall be moved together to the tabulating place designated by the officer in charge of elections.

G. At the close of the polls, if a ballot box has been transferred to a new polling place or a ballot box has been opened, a report detailing those events and other pertinent information shall be made by the officer in charge of elections to the chairpersons of all recognized political parties in that county.