Montana Code 13-15-101. Votes to be publicly counted — return forms
13-15-101. Votes to be publicly counted — return forms. (1) (a) Any official vote count must be open to public observation, including but not limited to resolution and counting areas.
Terms Used In Montana Code 13-15-101
- Ballot: means a paper ballot counted manually or a paper ballot counted by a machine, such as an optical scan system or other technology that automatically tabulates votes cast by processing the paper ballots. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Candidate: means :
(a)an individual who has filed a declaration or petition for nomination, acceptance of nomination, or appointment as a candidate for public office as required by law;
(b)for the purposes of chapter 35, 36, or 37, an individual who has solicited or received and retained contributions, made expenditures, or given consent to an individual, organization, political party, or committee to solicit or receive and retain contributions or make expenditures on the individual's behalf to secure nomination or election to any office at any time, whether or not the office for which the individual will seek nomination or election is known when the:
(i)solicitation is made;
(ii)contribution is received and retained; or
(iii)expenditure is made; or
(c)an officeholder who is the subject of a recall election. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Election: means a general, special, or primary election held pursuant to the requirements of state law, regardless of the time or purpose. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Election administrator: means , except as provided in subsection (14)(b), the county clerk and recorder or the individual designated by a county governing body to be responsible for all election administration duties, except that with regard to school elections not administered by the county, the term means the school district clerk. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- issue: means a proposal submitted to the people at an election for their approval or rejection, including but not limited to an initiative, referendum, proposed constitutional amendment, recall question, school levy question, bond issue question, or ballot question. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Person: means an individual, corporation, association, firm, partnership, cooperative, committee, including a political committee, club, union, or other organization or group of individuals or a candidate as defined in subsection (8). See Montana Code 13-1-101
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
- system: means any machine, device, technology, or equipment used to automatically record, tabulate, or process the vote of an elector cast on a paper ballot. See Montana Code 13-1-101
(b)Counties that perform tabulation using a vote-counting machine on the day prior to the election shall continue until all available ballots that can be legally counted have been tabulated or 5 p.m., whichever is earlier. The results of the tabulation may not be made publicly available until after the close of polls on election day and only after all voters have completed voting on election day in the county.
(c)(i) On election day, tabulation must begin and continue without adjournment until all available ballots that can be legally counted have been tabulated except pending unresolved resolution board ballots, provisional ballots, or military overseas ballots.
(ii)Immediately once all voters in a county have completed voting on election day, but no earlier than 8 p.m., the election administrator in the county shall provide the initial results to the public and continue to provide updated results at least once every 3 hours until completion. However, if the election is for at least one statewide race or statewide ballot issue, the election administrator’s public reporting of any results must first be provided to the secretary of state‘s election night reporting system.
(iii)All documents must be secured, with no person allowed access outside regular business hours.
(d)(i) A county that performs tabulation pursuant to 13-15-107, 13-21-206, or 13-21-226 shall continue without adjournment until all available ballots that can be legally counted have been tabulated.
(ii)Once tabulation has been completed, the results must be immediately publicly declared However, if the election is for at least one statewide race or statewide ballot issue, the election administrator’s public reporting of the results must first be provided to the secretary of state’s election night reporting system.
(2)Immediately after all the ballots are counted by precinct, the election judges shall copy the total votes cast for each candidate and for and against each proposition on the return forms furnished by the election administrator.
(3)The election judges shall immediately display one of the return forms at the place of counting and return a copy to the election administrator. Both forms must be signed by all the election judges completing the count.
(4)The secretary of state may adopt rules providing for notifications to the secretary of state concerning vote total updates or associated delays during the counting of votes, including the prioritization of reporting results through the state’s election night reporting system, but the rules may not require more frequent reporting of votes counted than otherwise provided in this section.