25-2810. Control of voting places; procedure in counting ballots; no ballots counted from ballot boxes containing less than 50 ballots; opening and closing polls; certification of election results. (a) Each election board shall have control of its voting place and election procedure under the sole supervision of the secretary of state, county election officer, deputy county election officers and the supervising judge. The election board shall open the polls at the time specified by the county election officer. The judges shall have charge of the ballots and the supervising judge shall designate one of their number to furnish them to voters as provided by law.

(b) Any election board of five or more members may be divided by the county election officer into a receiving board and a counting board, and the receiving board shall furnish and receive ballots and record the names of voters. The receiving board shall have control of the voting place and election procedure under the sole supervision and direction of the secretary of state, county election officer, deputy county election officers, and the supervising judge. The receiving board shall open and close the polls at the time specified by the county election officer.

(c) The counting board or boards, if any, shall proceed to their voting place after the opening of the polls at the hour specified by the county election officer.

(d) At national and state elections, both primary and general, the counting board, if any, shall take charge of one of the ballot boxes containing the national and state ballots already cast in that precinct. It shall retire to a partitioned room or space in the voting place provided for that purpose and there proceed to count and tabulate the ballots cast as it shall find them deposited in the national and state ballot box. The receiving board shall continue to receive the votes of electors in another national and state ballot box, and in a county and township ballot box until such time as the counting board shall have finished counting and tabulating the ballots cast in the first national and state ballot box. They shall then exchange the first box for the second national and state box, and so continue until they have counted and tabulated all the votes cast on that election day in the national and state ballot boxes. Counting boards may, in like manner, count the ballots in other ballot boxes when only an unsubstantial number of national and state ballots have been cast and are uncounted, and likewise at elections where there are no national and state ballots. Prior to the closing of the polls, no ballots shall be counted from any ballot box containing less than 50 ballots. No result of the count shall be made known to any person not on the election board, except the county election officer or such officer's deputies, until after the time to close the polls.

(e) At city and school elections, both primary and general, the counting board, if any, shall take charge of a ballot box containing one kind of ballot. Such board shall then proceed, as in national and state elections, to count and tabulate the ballots cast. When the ballots in such ballot box have been counted, the box shall be exchanged for another ballot box and so continue until all of the ballots of every kind are counted and tabulated.

(f) When the hour arrives for closing the polls, the election board, including both the receiving and counting boards if any, shall continue in the work of counting, tabulating and summarizing the votes, and making their certificates as to the result of the election.

(g) All of the judges and clerks at the same voting place on duty when the polls close shall unite in certifying the election results as provided in K.S.A. 25-3006, and amendments thereto.

(h) (1) In accordance with rules and regulations adopted by the secretary of state, the county election officer may allocate staffing resources as needed at the voting place except that two members of the election board, one of which is the supervising judge, shall be on duty for the entire time the polls are open.

(2) The secretary of state may adopt rules and regulations to implement the provisions of this section.

History: L. 1968, ch. 406, § 18; L. 1969, ch. 193, § 6; L. 1975, ch. 204, § 7; L. 1991, ch. 103, § 2; L. 1995, ch. 192, § 52; L. 2007, ch. 125, § 6; July 1.