Section 17-9-5

Discontinuance of use.

(a) Any county or city may, by resolution of the county commission for county elections or resolution of the municipal governing body for city elections or by a majority vote of its qualified electors voting thereon at any election held not earlier than six years after the adoption and installation of such machines, direct the discontinuance of the use of voting machines at elections held in such county or city. If discontinuance is not approved by the county commission or the municipal governing body, the question of the discontinuance of the use of such voting machines shall be submitted to the voters, subject to the same requirements as to resolution or petition and signatures thereon as is required for the submission of the question on the authorization of the use of such voting machines. Where the qualified electors of any city and the qualified electors of the entire county containing therein such city, both have voted by separate questions in favor of the adoption of the use of voting machines, or where any county and any city within any such county, through its proper officers, in pursuance of appropriate legislation, shall have separately authorized and directed the use of voting machines, a subsequent vote by the qualified electors of the entire county in favor of discontinuance will not be considered as a vote to discontinue the use of voting machines in such city. Such question as to the discontinuance of the use of voting machines shall be submitted in the following form: "Shall the use of voting machines be continued in the (city or county) of …?"

(b) The requirements for the approval of an electronic vote counting system is governed by Chapter 24 of this title.

(c) Any payment for the sale, lease, rental, use, or maintenance of voting machines or equipment shall be paid directly to the governmental entity that owns the machines or equipment.

(d) The discontinuance of the use of voting machines and adoption of an electronic vote counting system by any of the procedures set forth in this section is hereby validated. It is the legislative intent of this subsection that approval of the change from voting machines to electronic voting under Section 17-24-3 has, since the enactment of the Election Reform Act of 1983, been an effective means of changing voting systems.

(Acts 1939, No. 292, p. 443; Code 1940, T. 17, §95; Acts 1996, No. 96-514, p. 657, §§1, 2.)