§20701 — Title 52 Voting and Elections | U.S. Code

Summary

Election officers must keep records for 22 months after any general, special, or primary election where people vote for President, Vice President, presidential electors, U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, or Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner. The records include documents about voter applications, registrations, poll-tax payments, and other steps needed to vote. If the law says, an officer can give the records to another election official or deposit them with a state or Puerto Rico custodian, who then must keep them. If an officer or a custodian willfully fails to follow these rules, they can be fined up to $1,000, jailed for up to one year, or both.

Title 52, §20701

Voting and Elections — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Every officer of election shall retain and preserve, for a period of twenty-two months from the date of any general, special, or primary election of which candidates for the office of President, Vice President, presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, or Resident Commissioner from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico are voted for, all records and papers which come into his possession relating to any application, registration, payment of poll tax, or other act requisite to voting in such election, except that, when required by law, such records and papers may be delivered to another officer of election and except that, if a State or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico designates a custodian to retain and preserve these records and papers at a specified place, then such records and papers may be deposited with such custodian, and the duty to retain and preserve any record or paper so deposited shall devolve upon such custodian. Any officer of election or custodian who willfully fails to comply with this section shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

Editorial Notes

Codification Section was formerly classified to section 1974 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.

§20701 Retention and preservation of records and papers by officers of elections; deposit with custodian; penalty for violation

Summary

Title 52, §20701

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Citations & Metadata