{"data":{"id":"us-ky/krs-117.383","jurisdiction":"us-ky","citation":"KRS 117.383","heading":"Administrative regulations relating to procedures of voting.","body":"The State Board of Elections shall promulgate administrative regulations in accordance\nwith KRS Chapter 13A which shall maintain the maximum degree of correctness,\nimpartiality, and efficiency of the procedures of voting and shall provide methods to:\n(1) Count, tabulate, and record votes;\n(2) Place items on any ballot which shall, as closely as possible, follow the\nrequirements pertaining to ballots;\n(3) Design the ballot s to include a system to ensure an accurate record of all voting\nactivities;\n(4) Instruct voters in the use of the voting system, including any ballot marking device;\n(5) Provide for checking the accuracy of the voting system;\n(6) Provide necessary supplies, including those necessary for a write -in vote, to ensure\nvoter privacy;\n(7) Provide for the conducting and review of an audit of any component of a voting\nsystem or any voting equipment, and a review of any audit log;\n(8) Provide for the conducting and review of an election audit which shall establish the\nprotocol by which ballots are checked, compared, and verified with the results\nproduced by vote tallying equipment to ensure accuracy through a hand -to-eye\naudit defined and conducted as follows:\n(a) To validate the accuracy and fidelity of the vote tabulation, the Secretary of\nState or his or her designee shall randomly select, in all counties of the\nCommonwealth, one (1) ballot scanner and one (1) race tabulated on that\nscanner, which shall have more t han ten (10) votes cast, for a hand -to-eye\naudit to be performed by each county board of elections or its designee.\nCounties shall send a list for selection to the Secretary of State's office that\nonly includes ballot scanners which recorded more than ten (10) votes cast;\n(b) The sealed ballot boxes and signed tabulator tally tape or record from election\nday, as established in KRS 117.275, shall be provided by the county board of\nelections at an agreed upon location, and shall be accessible for public\nviewing. The sealed ballots are only to be unsealed in the presence of the\ncounty board of elections or its designee and public witnesses;\n(c) A minimum of two (2) qualified poll workers, not of the same political party,\nshall be selected from lists of available volunteers, sworn in by the county\nboard of elections or its designee to do  the hand -to-eye audit, and\ncompensated at the local poll worker rate. A video recording device shall be\nused for recording the event and it may be streamed for public internet\nviewing. A request under the Kentucky Open Records Act, KRS 61.870 to\n61.884, f or this video after an election shall be made during the sixty (60)\nconsecutive days following the election, and the video may be disposed of\nafter those sixty (60) days, or upon compliance with the Kentucky Open\nRecords Act or the closure of an investigat ion or any litigation, including\nappeals, in a District, Circuit, or federal court, whichever is later;\n(d) Ballots are to be aligned for stacking as needed, then viewed one (1) at a time,\nwith each volunteer making a tally mark on a tally sheet for each v ote cast for\neach candidate. Any ballots that are disputed or unclearly marked shall be set\naside and the county board of elections or its designee shall determine voter\nintent;\n(e) Once the hand-to-eye audit is completed, each volunteer shall add up the t ally\nmarks for each candidate, write down a total number of votes for each\ncandidate, and sign the tally sheet. The county board of elections or its\ndesignee shall verify if the two (2) separate hand -to-eye tallies match. If the\ntwo (2) hand -to-eye tallies  do not match each other, the process must be\nrepeated until the totals are matching. Once this occurs, the county board of\nelections or its designee shall also verify the tallies by signing each tally sheet.\nThen, the ballots must be returned to the ballo t box and resealed in the\npresence of the county board of elections or its designee and public witnesses;\n(f) The county board of elections or its designee shall compare the signed register\ntape total from the vote tabulation machine on election day to the  hand-to-eye\ntallies. If there is a discrepancy between the machine count and the hand -to-\neye audit, other than instances of voter intent markings outside the designated\nmarking area on the paper ballot that were unreadable by the scanner, or\nunscanned overvotes resulting from two (2) or more voter intent marks on the\nsame race, the county board of elections or its designee shall open an election\ninvestigation including a review of election day irregularity reports. If more\ndiscrepancies are found, the coun ty board of elections or its designee shall\nbroaden the investigation until the reason for the discrepancy is discovered\nand subsequently resolved. A determination as to whether the outcome of the\nrace could have been impacted by the discrepancies shall be  made and any\nfindings shall be reported to the Attorney General and Secretary of State; and\n(g) The county board of elections or its designee shall examine the electronic or\npaper sign -in records from the precinct or vote center and validate that the\nballots cast and recounted were less than or equal to the sign -in records for\nthat precinct or vote center. If the cast ballots for the precinct or vote center\nexceed the number of voters on the sign -in records for the precinct or vote\ncenter, the county board  of elections shall open an election investigation and\nreport the findings to the Attorney General and Secretary of State;\n(9) Provide a method for maintaining sufficient documents, including ballots and\nrecords, so that votes can be recounted;\n(10) Ensure the county board of elections produces accurate precinct -by-precinct\nsummaries of tabulation sheets showing the results of each precinct during in -\nperson absentee voting, election day voting, and when a county is approved to use a\nvote center;\n(11) Except as otherwise required in this chapter, all records and papers relating to\nspecified elections be retained for twenty -two (22) months, such documents and\nrecords shall be maintained for thirty (30) days following an election; and\n(12) Unless contrary to th e Help America Vote Act of 2002, ensure that all federal\nprovisional voting shall be conducted in a manner as prescribed by KRS Chapters\n116 to 120.","path":["KRS Chapter 117"],"source_url":"https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=58060","current_through":"Includes enactments through the 2026 Regular Session","vintage":"09/05/2026","retrieved_at":"2026-09-05T20:50:13Z","sha256":"937ec5a1a594cc607fa43b3e9b54ca6aa6ea07ae032c165c7bede6f4fd28d774","source_id":"us-ky","stale":false,"prev":"us-ky/krs-117.381","next":"us-ky/krs-117.385"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}