A. After ascertaining the results and before adjourning, the officers shall put the pollbooks, the duplicate statements of results, and any printed inspection and return sheets in the envelopes provided by the State Board. The officers shall seal the envelopes and direct them to the clerk of the circuit court for the county or city. The pollbooks, statements, and sheets thus sealed and directed, the sealed counted ballots envelope or container, and the unused, defaced, spoiled and set aside ballots properly accounted for, packaged and sealed, shall be conveyed by one of the officers to be determined by lot, if they cannot otherwise agree, to the clerk of court by noon on the day following the election.
The clerk shall retain custody of the pollbooks, printed ballots, and other elections materials until the time has expired for initiating a recount, contest, or other proceeding in which the pollbooks, printed ballots, and other elections materials may be needed as evidence and there is no proceeding pending. The clerk shall (i) secure all pollbooks, printed ballots and other election materials in sealed boxes; (ii) place all of the sealed boxes in a vault or room not open to the public or to anyone other than the clerk and his staff; (iii) cause such vault or room to be securely locked except when access is necessary for the clerk and his staff; and (iv) upon the initiation of a recount, certify that these security measures have been taken in whatever form is deemed appropriate by the chief judge.
After that time the clerk shall deliver the pollbooks to the general registrar who shall return the pollbooks or transfer a copy of the electronic data to the State Board as directed by § 24.2-114 for voting credit purposes. After the pollbooks are returned by the State Board, the general registrar shall retain the pollbooks in his principal office for two years from the date of the election. The clerk shall retain the statement of results and any printed inspection and return sheets for two years and may then destroy them.
B. The local electoral board or general registrar may direct that the officers of election, in lieu of conveying the materials to the clerk of the circuit court as provided in subsection A, shall convey the materials to the principal office of the general registrar on the night of the election or the morning following the election as the board directs. The general registrar shall secure and retain the materials in his office and shall convey to the clerk of the court, by noon of the day following the ascertainment of the results of the election by the electoral board, all of the election materials. The general registrar shall retain for public inspection one copy of the statement of results.
C. If an electronic pollbook is used, the data disc or cartridge containing the electronic records of the election, or, alternately, a printed copy of the pollbook records of those who voted, shall be transmitted, sealed and retained as required by this section, and otherwise treated as the pollbook for that election for all purposes subsequent to the election. Nothing in this title shall be construed to require that the equipment or software used to produce the electronic pollbook be sealed or retained along with the pollbook, provided that the records for the election have been transferred or printed according to the instructions of the State Board.
Code 1950, §§ 24-232, 24-267, 24-268, 24-270; 1970, c. 462, §§ 24.1-143, 24.1-144; 1971, Ex. Sess., c. 247; 1972, c. 620; 1973, c. 30; 1975, c. 515; 1978, c. 778; 1981, c. 425; 1992, c. 293; 1993, c. 641; 1995, c. 197; 1996, c. 8; 1997, cc. 438, 456; 2002, c. 190; 2003, c. 1015; 2004, cc. 410, 835; 2007, c. 285; 2016, cc. 18, 492; 2020, c. 294.
Structure Code of Virginia
§ 24.2-601. Town election process
§ 24.2-603. Hours polls to be open; closing the polls
§ 24.2-603.1. Postponement of certain elections; state of emergency
§ 24.2-604. Polling places; prohibited activities; prohibited area; penalties
§ 24.2-604.1. Signs for special entrances to polling places
§ 24.2-604.2. Polling places; prohibited area; emergency situations
§ 24.2-604.3. Election day page program; high school students
§ 24.2-604.5. Polling places; presence of additional persons authorized
§ 24.2-604.6. Polling places; simulated election activities
§ 24.2-605. Loudspeakers prohibited at polls; penalty
§ 24.2-606. Preservation of order at elections
§ 24.2-608. Officers to decide order of voting
§ 24.2-610. Materials at polling places
§ 24.2-611. Form and signing of pollbooks; records of persons voting; electronic pollbooks
§ 24.2-612.1. Ballots; death, withdrawal, or disqualification of candidates
§ 24.2-612.2. Notice of withdrawal of candidates
§ 24.2-614. Preparation and form of presidential election ballots
§ 24.2-615. Separate questions for proposed constitutional amendments, etc.; uniform ballots
§ 24.2-616. Duties of printer; statement; penalty
§ 24.2-620. Dividing ballots into packages for each precinct; delivery of absentee ballots
§ 24.2-621. Delivery of packages to officers; opening packages
§ 24.2-622. Unofficial sample ballots
§ 24.2-623. Ballot containers to be supplied by governing bodies; construction and custody
§ 24.2-624. Opening and closing ballot containers; opening polls
§ 24.2-625. Application of Title 24.2 and general law
§ 24.2-625.1. Voting equipment security
§ 24.2-625.2. Wireless communications at polling places
§ 24.2-626. Governing bodies shall acquire electronic voting systems
§ 24.2-626.1. Acquisition and use of accessible voting devices
§ 24.2-627. Electronic voting systems; number required
§ 24.2-629. State Board approval process of electronic voting systems
§ 24.2-630. Experimental use of approved systems
§ 24.2-631. Experimental use of voting systems and ballots prior to approval of the system
§ 24.2-632. Voting equipment custodians
§ 24.2-633. Notice of final testing of voting system; sealing equipment
§ 24.2-634. Locking and securing after preparation
§ 24.2-635. Demonstration of equipment
§ 24.2-636. Instruction as to use of equipment
§ 24.2-637. Furniture and equipment to be at polling places
§ 24.2-639. Duties of officers of election
§ 24.2-642. Inoperative equipment
§ 24.2-643. Qualified voter permitted to vote; procedures at polling place; voter identification
§ 24.2-644. Voting by paper ballot; voting for presidential electors; write-in votes
§ 24.2-645. Defaced printed ballots
§ 24.2-646.1. Permitted use of paper ballots
§ 24.2-647. Voting systems; demonstration on election day
§ 24.2-648. Write-in votes on voting equipment
§ 24.2-649. Assistance for certain voters inside the polling place; penalties
§ 24.2-649.1. Assistance for certain voters outside of the polling place
§ 24.2-650. Officers to sign only official papers, etc.
§ 24.2-651. Voter who is challenged; how challenge tried
§ 24.2-651.1. Voter who is shown as having already voted; provisional ballots
§ 24.2-652. Voter whose name erroneously omitted from pollbook; provisional ballots
§ 24.2-653. Provisional voting; procedures in polling place
§ 24.2-653.01. Provisional ballots; electoral boards to make determination as to validity
§ 24.2-653.1. Voters who did not receive absentee ballots; provisional ballots
§ 24.2-653.3. Voters assigned to split precinct; provisional ballots
§ 24.2-655. Representatives of political parties and candidates to be present on request
§ 24.2-657. Determination of vote on voting systems
§ 24.2-658. Machines with printed return sheets; disposition of sheets
§ 24.2-661. Detection and setting aside of double ballots
§ 24.2-662. Procedure when paper ballots exceed names on pollbooks
§ 24.2-664. Reduction in number of ballots
§ 24.2-665. How paper ballots counted
§ 24.2-666. Procedures to account for paper ballots
§ 24.2-667. Completion of statement of results
§ 24.2-667.1. Reporting of results; absentee votes
§ 24.2-669. Clerk to keep ballots; inspection; destruction
§ 24.2-670. Clerk to send for books and ballots if not delivered by officers
§ 24.2-671. Electoral board to meet and ascertain results; conclusiveness of results
§ 24.2-671.2. Risk-limiting audits
§ 24.2-672. Electoral board to correct irregularities in returns of officers of election
§ 24.2-673. Candidates having highest number of votes to receive certificate of election
§ 24.2-673.1. (Expires July 1, 2031) Ranked choice voting
§ 24.2-674. Determination by lot in case of tie
§ 24.2-675. Abstracts of votes to be made by secretary and forwarded to State Board and to clerks
§ 24.2-676. Secretary to make out and deliver certificate of election
§ 24.2-677. State Board to open and record returns; application of Freedom of Information Act
§ 24.2-678. Law-enforcement officer to be sent for abstracts not forwarded
§ 24.2-679. State Board to meet and make statement as to number of votes
§ 24.2-680. Certificates of election
§ 24.2-681. How special elections superintended and determined
§ 24.2-682. Times for special elections
§ 24.2-683. Writ for special election to fill a vacancy
§ 24.2-684. How referendum elections called and held, and the results ascertained and certified
§ 24.2-684.1. Requirements for voter petitions to call for referendum elections
§ 24.2-685. Special elections; request for abolition of constitutional offices
§ 24.2-687. Authorization for distribution of information on referendum elections