H.B. 206 Enrolled

COUNTY RESPONSIBILITY FOR VOTING
PRECINCTS AND POLLING PLACES
2003 GENERAL SESSION
STATE OF UTAH
Sponsor: Ron Bigelow
This act modifies statutes governing common polling places by eliminating the
requirement that voting precincts must be in the same legislative districts in order to be
combined.
This act affects sections of Utah Code Annotated 1953 as follows:
AMENDS:
20A-5-303, as last amended by Chapter 225, Laws of Utah 2002
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
Section 1. Section 20A-5-303 is amended to read:
20A-5-303. Establishing, dividing, abolishing, and changing voting precincts --
Common polling places -- Combined voting precincts -- Counties.
(1) (a) The county legislative body may establish, divide, abolish, and change voting
precincts.
(b) Within 30 days after the establishment, division, abolition, or change of a voting
precinct under this section, the county legislative body shall file with the Automated
Geographic Reference Center, created under Section 63A-6-202 , a notice describing the action
taken and specifying the resulting boundaries of each voting precinct affected by the action.
(2) (a) The county legislative body shall alter or divide voting precincts so that each
voting precinct contains not more than 1,000 active voters.
(b) The county legislative body shall:
(i) identify those precincts that may reach 1,000 active voters or become too large to
facilitate the election process; and
(ii) divide those precincts before February 1.
(3) The county legislative body may not:
(a) establish or abolish any voting precinct after February 1, of a regular general

election year; or
(b) alter or change the boundaries of any voting precinct after February 1, of a regular
general election year.
(4) For the purpose of balloting on regular primary or regular general election day, the
county legislative body may establish a common polling place for two or more whole voting
precincts according to the following requirements:
(a) the total population of the voters authorized to vote at the common polling place may
not exceed 3,000 active voters; and
[(b) the voting precincts voting at the common polling place shall all lie within the same
legislative district; and]
[(c)] (b) the voting precincts voting at, and the location of, the common polling place
shall be designated at least 90 days before the election.
(5) In addition to the authorizations contained in Subsection (4), in regular primary
elections only, the county legislative body may combine voting precincts and use one set of
election judges for the combined precincts if the ballots for each of the combined precincts are
identical.

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