§3-4-8 Minimum requirements of voting machines. - West Virginia Statutes

§3-4-8. Minimum requirements of voting machines.
A voting machine of particular make and design shall not be approved by the state election commission or be purchased, leased, or used, by any county court unless it shall fulfill the following requirements:

(1) It shall secure or insure the voter absolute secrecy in the act of voting, or, at the voter's election, shall provide for open voting;

(2) It shall be so constructed that no person except in instances of open voting, as herein provided for, can see or know for whom any voter has voted or is voting, and that no voter or other person can, while the machine is unlocked for operation, see or otherwise ascertain the numerical total of votes cast for any candidate or for or against any question;

(3) It shall permit each voter to vote at any election for all persons and offices for whom and which he is lawfully entitled to vote, whether or not the name of any such person appears on a ballot label as a candidate; and it shall permit each voter to vote for as many persons for an office as he is lawfully entitled to vote for; and to vote for or against any question upon which he is lawfully entitled to vote;

(4) It shall preclude each voter from voting for any person or office or upon any question for whom or which and upon which he is not lawfully entitled to vote and from voting for more persons for any office than he is lawfully entitled to vote for, and from voting for any candidate for the same office and upon any question more than once;

(5) It shall permit each voter to deposit, write in, or affix upon devices to be provided for that purpose, ballots containing the names of persons for whom he desires to vote whose names do not appear upon the machine ballot labels;

(6) It shall permit each voter to change his vote for any candidate and upon any question appearing upon the ballot labels up to the time when he starts to register his vote;

(7) It shall correctly register and accurately count all votes cast for each candidate and for and against each question appearing upon the ballot labels;

(8) It shall permit each voter at any election other than primary elections, to vote a straight party ticket by one device, and by one device to vote for all candidates of one party for presidential electors; and to vote a mixed ticket selected from the candidates of any and all parties and from independent candidates;

(9) It shall be capable of adjustment by election officers at a primary election so as to permit each voter to vote only for the candidates of the party with which he has declared his affiliation, and so as to preclude him from voting for any candidate seeking nomination by any other political party, and so as to permit each voter to vote for the candidates, if any, for nonpartisan nomination or election and on public questions;

(10) It shall have separate voting devices for candidates and questions, which shall be arranged in separate rows or columns. It shall also be arranged so that one or more adjacent rows or columns may be assigned to the candidates of each political party at primary elections;

(11) It shall have a public counter or other device, the register of which is visible on the outside of the machine and which shall show the total number of voters who have voted on that machine in the election; also candidate and question counters or other devices which shall not be visible on the outside of the machine when the machine is unlocked for operation, and upon which are registered numerically the total votes cast for each candidate and question appearing on the ballot labels; also a protective counter or other device which will record the cumulative total number of movements of the registering mechanism;

(12) It shall be provided with locks and seals by the use of which all movement of the registering mechanism is prevented, both before the polls are open or before the operation of the machine for an election is begun and immediately after the polls are closed or after the operation of the machine for an election is completed;

(13) It shall have the capacity to contain the names of candidates constituting the tickets of at least nine political parties, and to accommodate the wording of at least fifteen questions;

(14) It shall be durably constructed of material of good quality and in a workmanlike manner and in a form which shall make it safely transportable;

(15) It shall be so constructed with frames for the placing of ballot labels and with transparent devices for the protection of such labels, that the labels on which are printed the names of candidates and their respective parties, titles of offices, and wording of questions shall be reasonably protected from mutilation, disfigurement or disarrangement;

(16) It shall bear a number that will identify it or distinguish it from any other machine;

(17) It shall be so constructed that a voter may easily learn the method of operating it and may expeditiously cast his vote for all candidates of his choice; and

(18) It shall be accompanied by a mechanically operated instruction model which shall show the arrangement of ballot labels, party columns or rows, and questions.