Virginia Code 24.2-647: Voting systems; demonstration on election day.
The general registrar shall provide at each polling place on election day, for the voting system in use, a model of or materials displaying a portion of its ballot face. The model or materials shall be located on the table of one of the officers or in some other place accessible to the voters. An officer of election shall instruct any voter who requests instruction before voting on the proper manner of voting. The officer may direct the voter’s attention to sample ballots so that the voter may become familiar with the location of questions and names of offices and candidates.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 24.2-647
- Candidate: means a person who seeks or campaigns for an office of the Commonwealth or one of its governmental units in a general, primary, or special election and who is qualified to have his name placed on the ballot for the office. See Virginia Code 24.2-101
- Election: means a general, primary, or special election. See Virginia Code 24.2-101
- General registrar: means the person appointed by the electoral board of a county or city pursuant to § Virginia Code 24.2-101
- Officer of election: means a person appointed by an electoral board pursuant to § Virginia Code 24.2-101
- Polling place: means the structure that contains the one place provided for each precinct at which the qualified voters who are residents of the precinct may vote. See Virginia Code 24.2-101
- Voting system: means the electronic voting and counting machines used at elections, including direct recording electronic machines (DRE), ballot scanner machines, and on-demand ballot printing systems and ballot marking devices used to manufacture or mark ballots to be cast by voters on electronic voting and counting machines. See Virginia Code 24.2-101
For ballot scanner machines, an officer of election, using a demonstration ballot and machine, shall show each voter who requests, immediately on entry to the polling place, the manner in which the ballot is to be voted.
If any voter, after entering the voting booth, asks for further instructions concerning the manner of voting, two of the officers from different political parties shall give such instructions to him, but no officer shall in any manner request or seek to persuade or induce any such voter to vote for or against any particular ticket, candidate, or question. After giving such instructions and before the voter votes, the officers shall leave the voting booth, and the voter shall cast his ballot in secret.
Code 1950, § 24-309; 1970, c. 462, § 24.1-219; 1980, c. 639; 1985, c. 458; 1993, c. 641; 2014, cc. 540, 576; 2016, cc. 18, 492.