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7-5-702. Preservation of ballots, stubs, certificates, and other election materials.
Arkansas Code — all titles (historical 2020) · legal_authorities
7-5-702. Preservation of ballots, stubs, certificates, and other election materials.
(a) After the election has been finally certified by the county board of election commissioners, the county board of election commissioners shall retain the custody of and safely keep in a sealed container appropriately marked in a secure location in the county courthouse or other county storage facility all ballots, ballot stubs, and certificates returned to it from the several precincts for a period of twenty (20) days, after which time the ballots and certificates shall be stored in a secure location in the county courthouse or other county storage facility for a period of two (2) years from the date of the election, unless the county board of election commissioners shall be sooner notified in writing that:
(1) The election of some person voted for at the election and declared to have been elected has been contested;
(2) Criminal prosecution has begun before a tribunal of competent jurisdiction against any officer of election or person voting thereat for any fraud in the election; or
(3) The results of the election will be audited by the State Board of Election Commissioners under § 7-4-121.
(b) If the county board of election commissioners is notified as provided in subsection (a) of this section, then so many of the ballots and certificates as may relate to matters involved in the contest or any prosecution shall be preserved for use as evidence in the contest or prosecution.
(c) During the time the ballots may be retained or stored, the package containing them shall not be opened by anyone unless:
(1) Directed to do so by some competent tribunal before which an election contest or prosecution is pending in which the ballots are to be used as evidence; or
(2) Upon w
Source: Arkansas Code — historical release 78 (November 6, 2020) · 7-5-702
Stored review status: Historical 2020-11-06 source release; later amendments not reconciled; machine-extracted, not independently legally reviewed; source heading status: text_in_historical_source. A text match is a research starting point; applicability is not established.
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Record provenance
Stable record: arkansas_code:legal_authorities:7-5-702
Source file: gov.ar.code.title.07.odt
Pages: Not recorded – Not recorded
Passage SHA-256: de56da9d855f6f774229da6a1d9ec987c3915b965628f34aeb5114d78f4cc2ff
Source location: content.xml paragraph 3918
Stored source content
7-5-702. Preservation of ballots, stubs, certificates, and other election materials.
(a) After the election has been finally certified by the county board of election commissioners, the county board of election commissioners shall retain the custody of and safely keep in a sealed container appropriately marked in a secure location in the county courthouse or other county storage facility all ballots, ballot stubs, and certificates returned to it from the several precincts for a period of twenty (20) days, after which time the ballots and certificates shall be stored in a secure location in the county courthouse or other county storage facility for a period of two (2) years from the date of the election, unless the county board of election commissioners shall be sooner notified in writing that:
(1) The election of some person voted for at the election and declared to have been elected has been contested;
(2) Criminal prosecution has begun before a tribunal of competent jurisdiction against any officer of election or person voting thereat for any fraud in the election; or
(3) The results of the election will be audited by the State Board of Election Commissioners under § 7-4-121.
(b) If the county board of election commissioners is notified as provided in subsection (a) of this section, then so many of the ballots and certificates as may relate to matters involved in the contest or any prosecution shall be preserved for use as evidence in the contest or prosecution.
(c) During the time the ballots may be retained or stored, the package containing them shall not be opened by anyone unless:
(1) Directed to do so by some competent tribunal before which an election contest or prosecution is pending in which the ballots are to be used as evidence; or
(2) Upon written instruction signed by the Director of the State Board of Election Commissioners under § 7-4-121.
(d) For twenty (20) days, the county board of election commissioners shall retain the custody of ballot stubs in an appropriately marked, sealed container delivered to the county board of election commissioners from the several precincts, after which time they shall be stored in a secure location in the county courthouse or other county storage facility unless:
(1) An election contest has been filed;
(2) A criminal prosecution has been initiated in connection with the election; or
(3) Upon written instruction signed by the director under § 7-4-121.
(e) After a period of two (2) years, all marked ballots and ballot stubs may be destroyed in the following manner:
(1) The county board of election commissioners shall enter an order directing the destruction of marked ballots and ballot stubs;
(2) The county board of election commissioners shall make and retain a record of marked ballots and ballot stubs destroyed; and
(3) The county board of election commissioners shall file with the county clerk the order and record pertaining to marked ballots and ballot stubs destroyed.
Cross-references
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Arkansas Code — all titles (historical 2020) · legal_authorities
7-4-121. Election audits.
(a)(1) The State Board of Election Commissioners shall audit the results of each general election to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the voting process.
(2) When conducting a post-election audit of the election results, the State Board of Election Commissioners shall:
(A) Select by lot the counties, polling sites, early voting locations, and vote centers to be audited;
(B) Select a sufficient number of early voting locations, polling sites, and vote centers to obtain a meaningful sample;
(C) Select the counties to be audited no less than sixty (60) days following the date of the general election;
(D) Conduct the audit by using the voter-verified paper audit trail;
(E)(i) Compile a report detailing the findings of this audit.
(ii) The report filed under this subdivision (a)(2)(E):
(a) Is not a recount;
(b) Has no legal effect on the outcome of any election subject to the audit; and
(c) Shall be made public and disseminated to any person upon request; and
(F) Securely maintain any county election records obtained for the purpose of conducting an audit.
(3) The Secretary of State may, at his or her discretion, provide additional staff to assist in conducting any audit under this subsection.
(b)(1) The county clerk, county board of election commissioners, or other county election official for a county that is audited under this section shall provide documents, records, or access to election equipment requested by the State Board of Election Commissioners to the State Board of Election Commissioners upon request.
(2) If the county clerk, county board of election commissioners, or other county election official of the county willfully fails to comply with a request made under subdivision (b)(1) of this section, and
Source: Arkansas Code — historical release 78 (November 6, 2020) · 7-4-121
Stored review status: Historical 2020-11-06 source release; later amendments not reconciled; machine-extracted, not independently legally reviewed; source heading status: text_in_historical_source. The source passage cites 7-4-121. This identifies an authority to review, not proof of applicability.