Section 17-9-52 This Section Was Assigned by the Code Commissioner in the 2022 Regular Session, Effective July 1, 2022. This Is Not in the Current Code Supplement.
AI-assisted research summary: This section bans election officials and their employees from soliciting, accepting, or using donations for election-related expenses or voter education, outreach, or registration programs, with limited exceptions.
(a) For the purposes of this section, “election-related expenses” means any of the following: (1) Payments, salaries, or bonuses for election officials, boards of registrars, and poll workers. (2) Expenses relating to equipment, ballots, printing, mailing, or transportation. (3) Expenses relating to signage or media production. (4) Expenses relating to lectures, educational seminars, or events to train election officials, boards of registrars, or poll workers. (b) Notwithstanding any other law, no state or local public official responsible for the conduct of an election, nor his or her employee, may solicit, accept, or use any donation in the form of money, grants, property, or personal services from an individual or a nongovernmental entity for the purpose of funding election-related expenses or voter education, voter outreach, or voter registration programs. (c) This section does not prohibit the donation and acceptance of space to be temporarily used for a polling place. (d) Notwithstanding this section, if a state public health emergency is proclaimed, donations of items for the preservation or protection of the public health to be used by voters or election officials may be accepted by the Office of the Governor for distribution to each judge of probate, provided written notice of that donation is published on the Governor’s website and transmitted by press release to a media outlet in each county no more than 21 days and no less than 10 days prior to the distribution of the donated items. The written notice shall include the full name, address, and phone number of the donor, and a list of items, including descriptions and quantities and the dollar value. Items shall be distributed to each of the 67 counties equally. The Governor may transfer the items to the Office of the Secretary of State for distribution after publication of notice. (e) Any person who violates this section shall be guilty of a Class B misdemeanor.