A. The deadline for receipt of all absentee ballots shall be the closing of polls on Election Day in order to eliminate all disputes concerning the timing of absentee ballots and potential problems with the United States Postal Service or its failure to postmark an envelope. The deadline for a request for an absentee ballot should be based on U.S. Postal Service delivery standards for [state].
B. The counting of ballots including any absentee ballots and ballots submitted through early voting shall not begin until all of the polls in all polling locations have been closed at the end of Election Day.
- [Should the provision of this law subsequently be altered by appropriate legislative action and the counting of votes before Election Day be permitted, the release of voting results shall be banned until the evening of Election Day under penalty of law].
C. The counting of ballots shall continue without pause until all votes have been tabulated. If extreme and unforeseen circumstances occur that require suspension of the vote count, election officials shall notify the public of the suspension and the exact time that it will resume.
D. In no event shall electronic voting machines at polling locations be connected to the Internet. Likewise, any computer used in government election departments to tabulate voting results shall be a stand-alone computer that is not connected to the Internet or an online network.
Learn More: Election Integrity Scorecard
