(1) (a) (I) Each candidate for office, or interested party in case of a ballot issue or ballot question, at a local government election is entitled to appoint an eligible elector to act on his or her behalf in every polling place in which he or she is a candidate or in which the issue or question is on the ballot; except that neither a current candidate for director nor any immediate family member, to the second degree, of such candidate is eligible to serve as a watcher for that candidate.
(II) As used in this section, "interested party" means an issue committee whose issue is on the ballot.
The candidates or interested parties shall certify the name of the persons so appointedto the designated election official on forms provided by the designated election official. If multiple names are certified to the designated election official for or against any ballot issue or ballot question, and the designated election official reasonably determines that multiple watchers will impede the conduct of the election, the designated election official may, by lot, reduce the number of watchers to one for and one against the ballot issue or ballot question for each location to be watched.
In case a watcher must leave the polling place, the watcher may designate an alternate to act on his or her behalf while he or she is absent if the alternate is made known to the election judges by an affidavit of the person first named as a watcher. A watcher serving at the polling place has the right to remain inside the polling place from at least fifteen minutes prior to the opening of the polls until after the completion of the count of votes cast at the election and the certification of the count by the election judges. Each watcher may maintain a list of eligible electors as the names are announced by the election judges and witness each step in the conduct of the election.
Watchers shall take an oath administered by one of the election judges that they areeligible electors, that their name has been submitted to the designated election official as a watcher for this election, and that they will not in any manner make known to anyone the result of counting votes until the polls have closed.
Watchers shall not:
Interrupt or disrupt the processing, verification, or counting of any ballots or anyother stage of the election;
Write down any ballot numbers or any other identifying information about the electors;
Handle the pollbooks, affidavits and self-affirmations, ballots, mail ballot envelopes,absentee ballot envelopes, voting or counting machines, or machine components;
Interfere with the orderly conduct of any election process, including issuance of ballots, receiving of ballots, and voting or counting of ballots;
Interact with election officials or election judges except for the individual identifiedby the designated election official; or
Have a cellular phone, camera, recording device, laptop or tablet, or other electronicdata capture device in the polling place.
(4) A designated election official may remove a watcher upon finding that the watcher commits or encourages fraud in connection with his or her duties, violates any of the limitations outlined in this article, violates his or her oath, or is abusive or threatening toward election officials or any other person.
Source: L. 2014: Entire article added, (HB 14-1164), ch. 2, p. 21, § 6, effective February
18. L. 2016: (1)(a)(I) amended, (HB 16-1442), ch. 313, p. 1268, § 7, effective August 10.