Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1360-02-05-.07 - PROGRAM TEST AND AUDIT

(1) The county election commission shall arrange by contract with an independent firm of certified public accountants, or public accountants, to provide test ballots, the predetermined number of votes and results known only to the auditor. The auditor shall receive sufficient ballots from the election commission to design a ballot test in the tested precincts. All ballots used for testing purposes shall be recorded by the registrar and deleted from the official ballots to be used by the voters. The ballot information and candidate positions for each precinct shall be provided to the auditor by the registrar. The county election commission shall perform a test of the ballot tabulating program according to the following procedures.

(2) The presence of all election commissioners in conducting these tests is mandatory; provided, however, in the absence of a member for good cause, the tests may be done in the presence of members of the minority and majority party.

(3) Test One (1) of the ballot tabulation program shall be of at least one precinct in each district selected at random by the auditor. These test ballots shall be delivered at least seven (7) days prior to the day of the election, in sealed envelopes to the county election commission. The correct results of each of the test ballots shall be in a separately sealed envelope.

(4) Test Two (2) of the ballot tabulation program shall be a random testing of Five (5) precincts in the county which were not part of test One (1). The second test program shall be run within one hour prior to the closing of the polls in the presence of the full county election commission and the accuracy of the program rechecked through such second set of simulated ballots in the same manner as the first test. Following each test, the computer shall be instructed to erase the test results from its memory bank so that such test results are not included in the report of the election. A printout shall be made to show that all candidates and measures have zero (000) balances.

(5) Test Three (3) of the ballot tabulation program shall be recertified after the completion of the tally for the total election using either the first or second test program, or both. Such final certification of the election program shall be done in the presence of all county election commissioners.

(6) The auditor shall be instructed to test all ballot positions for each office including over votes. After each test, the county election commission shall ensure that the test results are cleared from the tabulator memory.

(7) The county election commission shall be permitted to conduct any additional tests needed in the development of the ballot tabulation program.

(8) Within twenty-four (24) hours following the election, the election commission shall cause an audit of the election to be made by an independent firm of certified public accountants, or public accountants.

The auditor shall compare the number of signatures on the applications or the voter signature list with the number of ballot stubs, the number of ballots counted by the computer, and ballots issued per the reconciliation sheets in each of five (5) precincts picked at random by each of the five (5) commissioners.

(9) Within twenty-four hours following the election, the auditor may, at the discretion of the election commissions, run the voted ballots from any or all precincts.

(10) The County Election Commission, after completing the comparison of the results, shall make and certify the official tabulation and certification of results, showing both precinct and county totals. The certification report shall contain an oath by the election commissioners of certification, the office and issue report and the write-in report, if necessary.

Notes

Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1360-02-05-.07

Original rule filed April 19, 1974; effective May 19, 1974. Amendment filed June 4, 1974; effective July 4, 1974. Amendment filed March 13, 1980; effective April 26, 1980. Repeal and new rule filed August 19, 1994; effective December 29, 1994.

Authority: T.C.A.§§2-910,2-11-201(c).