24.2-640 - Ballots generally.
§ 24.2-640. Ballots generally.
In every county and city using mechanical or direct electronic voting systemsrequiring printed ballots, the electoral board shall furnish a sufficientnumber of ballots printed on plain white paper, of such form and size as willfit the ballot frames. The names of the various candidates shall be printedin type not less than fourteen point. On mechanical devices, the name of theoffice for which candidates are offering for election shall be printed inreverse printing or overlaid with a colored plastic strip.
For elections for federal, statewide, and General Assembly offices only, eachcandidate who has been nominated by a political party or in a primaryelection shall be identified by the name of his political party. Independentcandidates shall be identified by the term "Independent." For the purposeof this section, any Independent candidate may, by producing sufficient andappropriate evidence of nomination by a "recognized political party" to theState Board, have the term "Independent" on the ballot converted to that ofa "recognized political party" on the ballot and be treated on the ballotin a manner consistent with the candidates nominated by political parties.For the purpose of this section, a "recognized political party" is definedas an organization that, for at least six months preceding the filing of itsnominee for the office, has had in continual existence a state centralcommittee composed of registered voters residing in each congressionaldistrict of the Commonwealth, a party plan and bylaws, and a duly electedstate chairman and secretary. A letter from the state chairman of arecognized political party certifying that a candidate is the nominee of thatparty and also signed by such candidate accepting that nomination shallconstitute sufficient and appropriate evidence of nomination by a recognizedpolitical party. The name of the political party, the name of the"recognized political party," or term "Independent" may be shown by aninitial or abbreviation to meet ballot requirements. All candidates shall bearranged on each device or other ballot to be electronically counted, eitherin columns or horizontal rows, and the caption of the various ballots on thedevices shall be placed so that the voter knows what feature is to be used oroperated to vote for his choice. No push knob, key lever or other deviceshall be used to vote for any candidate other than on an individual basisexcept for presidential electors. In districts in which more than one personis nominated by a single party for the same office, the names of thecandidates shall appear alphabetically within their party groups.
The electoral board in any locality which converted from a mechanical to anelectronic voting system after January 1, 1994, may use a ballot which (i) issimilar to the ballot used on the mechanical system previously used in thelocality, (ii) aligns the candidates of each political party and independentcandidates on the same row or column, and (iii) provides a separate row orcolumn for each political party and for independent candidates.
The provisions of general law concerning ballots shall apply unless inconflict with this section.
(Code 1950, § 24-297; 1970, c. 462, § 24.1-207; 1972, c. 620; 1974, c. 428;1985, c. 458; 1993, c. 641; 1998, c. 797; 2000, c. 514; 2002, c. 738; 2010,c. 204.)