Section 17-6-4
Designating and equipping voting places; county voting centers.
THIS SECTION WAS AMENDED BY ACT 2021-535 IN THE 2021 REGULAR SESSION, EFFECTIVE MAY 26, 2021. THIS IS NOT IN THE CURRENT CODE SUPPLEMENT.
(a) Except as may be provided further by local election laws or by the electronic vote counting statutes, the county governing bodies shall designate the places of holding elections in the precincts established hereunder, and, whenever the county has alphabetically divided the list of registered qualified voters of a precinct into groups, it shall designate not only the voting place but also the number of electronic voting machines at each voting place in the precinct, being sure that it designates an electronic voting machine for each group of qualified voters. The county governing body shall provide for installing as many electronic voting machines as are needed in each precinct, and the electronic voting machines may be installed at one designated voting place or there may be more than one voting place designated and such number of electronic voting machines installed at each place as needed to provide for the voters authorized to vote at each place. No electronic voting machine, or voting machine of any kind, shall be installed or operated except as designated for installation and operation during an election within the interior of an enclosed building designated as a voting place pursuant to this section. No election officer or poll worker shall take a ballot into or out of any voting place, except in the performance of his or her authorized or official duties that include only the pre-election and post-election transporting of ballots to and from voting places as part of established election procedures. The county governing body shall file with the judge of probate of the county and with the board of registrars, along with a copy of its order fixing the boundaries of a precinct, the names of voting places indicating in those precincts in which the voters have been alphabetically divided into groups and the voting places and electronic voting machines at which each alphabetical group shall vote and shall post the list of voting places at the county courthouse.
(b) The judge of probate, within five days after the county governing body of any county files with him or her the boundaries of the election precincts and the names of the voting places therein, shall give notice of the same by publication in a newspaper of general circulation published in the county and shall have the same posted by the sheriff at the courthouse and at two public places in the election district of the precinct. The notice shall describe the election precincts by their numbers and shall specify the place therein where elections are to be held.
(c) Where election precincts have been subdivided into voting districts, no voter in any election held thereafter shall vote at any place other than the voting district in which the voter at the time is registered as a qualified elector. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any county, by local law, may establish voting centers by combining voters from two or more precincts in order to create a voting center in order to facilitate or reduce costs for elections.
(d) Except as provided further by local election laws or by the electronic vote counting laws, whenever voting places are once designated and established as required by this section, the voting places for precincts shall not be changed within three months before an election is to be held. When the boundaries of election precincts are changed, the county governing body shall forthwith designate and establish at least one voting place for every 2,400 voters in each election precinct so created. Voting places shall be the same for all elections, whether primary, general, or special, or federal, state, district, or county.
(e) The courthouse is the voting place in the precinct in which it is situated unless another place for that purpose is designated by the county governing body. Elections must be held at places in the other precincts as may be designated by the county governing body.
(Acts 1989, No. 89-952, p. 1874, §5; Act 2003-313, p. 733, §2; §17-5A-5; amended and renumbered by Act 2006-570, p. 1331, §27; Act 2021-535, §1.)