25-4403. County commission and election officer may authorize; issuance of bonds; abandonment of system, when; direct recording electronic system acquisition prohibited; electronic or electromechanical voting system and electronic poll book requirements for acquisition; network connectivity prohibited except for certain poll books. (a) The board of county commissioners and the county election officer of any county may provide an electronic or electromechanical voting system or electronic poll books to be used at voting places, or for advance voting in the county at national, state, county, township, city and school primary and general elections and in question submitted elections.

(b) The board of county commissioners of any county in which the board of county commissioners and county election officer have determined that an electronic or electromechanical voting system or electronic poll books shall be used may issue bonds to finance and pay for purchase, lease or rental of such a system.

(c) The board of county commissioners and the county election officer of any county may adopt, experiment with or abandon any electronic or electromechanical system or electronic poll books herein authorized and approved for use in the state and may use such a system in all or any part of the voting areas within the county or in combination with an optical scanning voting system or with regular paper ballots. Whenever the secretary of state rescinds approval of any voting system or electronic poll books, the board of county commissioners and the county election officer shall abandon the system or electronic poll books until changes therein required by the secretary of state have been made, or if the secretary of state advises that acceptable changes cannot be made therein, the abandonment shall be permanent.

(d) On and after the effective date of this act, no board of county commissioners in any county may purchase, lease or rent any direct recording electronic system, as defined in K.S.A. 25-4401(d), and amendments thereto. On and after the effective date of this act, no board of county commissioners in any county may purchase, lease or rent any electronic or electromechanical voting system, unless such system:

(1) Provides a paper record of each vote cast, produced at the time the vote is cast; and

(2) has the ability to be tested both before an election and prior to the date of canvass. Such test shall include the ability to match the paper record of the machine to the vote total contained in the machine.

(e) No component of an electronic or electromechanical voting system shall have the capability to be connected to the internet or to any other communications or computer network, including, but not limited to, a local area network, wireless network, cellular network or satellite network, or to use bluetooth or any other wireless communications technology.

(f) On and after July 1, 2022, no board of county commissioners or the county election officer of any county may purchase, lease or rent any electronic poll books unless the kind or make of such poll books have been certified by the secretary of state. No electronic poll book may be operated unless its network connectivity meets the security standards established by the secretary of state.

History: L. 1977, ch 129, § 3; L. 1980, ch. 115, § 2; L. 2007, ch. 125, § 11; L. 2018, ch. 116, § 9; L. 2022, ch. 87, § 12; July 1.