Sec. 1. (a) Not later than seventy-four (74) days before election day, for each county planning to use an electronic voting system at the next election, VSTOP shall provide each county election board with a randomly sorted list of unique identification numbers for the inventory of machines in the county maintained under IC 3-11-16-4. Starting at the top of the list, the county election board shall select machines in the list in the order listed so that:

(1) if a machine to be selected in the list is not scheduled to be used in the upcoming election, the selection process will move to the next machine in the order listed;

(2) each selected machine is scheduled to be used in the upcoming election; and

(3) the number of machines selected is not less than five percent (5%) of the machines in the county scheduled by the county election board to be used in the upcoming election.

     (b) The county election board shall test the machines as described in subsection (a) to ascertain that the machines will correctly count the votes cast for straight party tickets, for all candidates (including write-in candidates), and on all public questions. If an individual attending the public test requests that additional electronic voting systems be tested, then the county election board shall select and test additional machines from the list in the manner described in subsection (a).

     (c) If VSTOP does not provide the lists under subsection (a) not later than sixty (60) days before the election, the county election board shall establish and implement a procedure for random selection of not less than five percent (5%) of the machines in the county. The county election board shall then test the machines selected to be used in the upcoming election as described in subsection (b).

     (d) The testing under subsection (b) must begin before absentee voting starts in the office of the circuit court clerk under IC 3-11-10-26.

     (e) If a county election board determines that:

(1) a ballot provided by an electronic voting system:

(A) must be corrected as provided by IC 3-11-2-16 because of the omission of a candidate, political party, or public question from the ballot; or

(B) is an absentee ballot that a voter is entitled to recast under IC 3-11.5-4-2 because the absentee ballot includes a candidate for election to office who:

(i) ceased to be a candidate; and

(ii) has been succeeded by a candidate selected under IC 3-13-1 or IC 3-13-2; and

(2) machines used in the test conducted under this section did not contain a ballot that was reprinted or corrected to remove the omission of a candidate, political party, or public question, or indicate the name of the successor candidate;

the county election board shall conduct an additional public test described in subsection (b) using the machines previously tested and containing the reprinted or corrected ballots.

As added by P.L.221-2005, SEC.91. Amended by P.L.169-2015, SEC.130; P.L.100-2018, SEC.7; P.L.71-2019, SEC.18; P.L.278-2019, SEC.113; P.L.135-2020, SEC.5.