13-19-106. General requirements for mail ballot election. A mail ballot election must be conducted substantially as follows:
     (1) Subject to 13-12-202, official mail ballots must be prepared and all other initial procedures followed as provided by law, except that mail ballots must be paper ballots and are not required to have stubs.
     (2) An official ballot must be mailed to every qualified elector of the political subdivision conducting the election.
     (3) Each return/verification envelope must contain a form prescribed by the secretary of state for the elector to verify the accuracy of the elector's address or notify the election administrator of the elector's correct mailing address and to return the corrected address with the voted ballot in the manner provided by 13-19-306.
     (4) The elector shall mark the ballot and place it in a secrecy envelope.
     (5) The elector shall then place the secrecy envelope containing the elector's ballot in a return/verification envelope and shall return it by mailing it or delivering it in person to a place of deposit designated by the election administrator so that it is received before a specified time on election day.
     (6) Once returned, election officials shall first qualify the submitted ballot by examining the return/verification envelope to determine whether it is submitted by a qualified elector who has not previously voted.
     (7) If the ballot qualifies and is otherwise valid, officials shall then open the return/verification envelope and remove the secrecy envelope, which is then voted by depositing it unopened in an official ballot box.
     (8) After the close of polls on election day, voted ballots must be counted and canvassed as provided in chapter 15.

     History: En. Sec. 3, Ch. 196, L. 1985; amd. Sec. 17, Ch. 591, L. 1991; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 338, L. 1997; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 546, L. 2001; amd. Sec. 76, Ch. 414, L. 2003; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 443, L. 2003.