1. (a) Except as provided in subsection (d), the county election board in a county using a ballot card voting system shall provide ballot cards to the precinct election board that permit voters to cast write-in votes for each officer to be voted for at that election.

2. (b) The ballot cards provided under subsection (a) must be:

   1. (1) designed to be folded; or

   2. (2) accompanied by a secrecy envelope;

      to ensure the secrecy of each of the votes cast by a voter.

3. (c) This subsection is enacted to comply with 52 U.S.C. 21081 by establishing uniform and nondiscriminatory standards to define what constitutes a vote on an optical scan voting system. Except as provided in subsection (d), a write-in vote shall be cast by printing the name of the candidate and the title of the office in the space provided for write-in votes on a ballot card or secrecy envelope.

4. (d) Space for write-in voting for an office is not required if:

   1. (1) there are no declared write-in candidates for that office; or

   2. (2) the marking device allows for entry of a write-in candidate that can be read by a tabulator.

      However, procedures must be implemented to permit write-in voting for candidates for federal offices.

      [Pre-1986 Recodification Citation: 3-2-4-4(d) part.]

As added by P.L.5-1986, SEC.7. Amended by P.L.4-1991, SEC.106; P.L.38-1999, SEC.47; P.L.176-1999, SEC.80; P.L.239-2001, SEC.10; P.L.209-2003, SEC.156; P.L.14-2004, SEC.131; P.L.221-2005, SEC.78; P.L.13-2014, SEC.4; P.L.128-2015, SEC.189.