§11-46-98. Appointment, compensation, etc., of election officers.

(a) The board of commissioners must, not less than 15 days before the holding of any municipal election, appoint from the qualified electors of the respective wards or voting districts officers to hold the election as follows: Where paper ballots are used, one returning officer for each ward and three inspectors and two clerks for each box at each voting place and where voting machines are used, an inspector, a chief clerk, and a first and second assistant clerk for each voting machine; except, that in the event voting centers are established, then the requirements of Section 11-46-95 shall control the number of election officials. In every city having, according to the most recent federal decennial census, 10,000 or more inhabitants, the board of commissioners shall also appoint from the qualified electors of the city three inspectors, two clerks, and a returning officer, who shall meet on the day of the election at such place and hour as the board of commissioners may designate for the purpose of receiving, counting, and returning the absentee ballots cast at such election, and four days before the election the municipal governing body shall ascertain the number of absentee ballots which have been cast at the election and if more than 600 absentee ballots have been cast the board of commissioners may appoint three more inspectors and two more clerks for each 600 absentee ballots or fraction thereof cast at such election. No officer or employee of the municipality shall be eligible to serve as an election official. No kindred of any candidate or his or her spouse to the second degree, according to the civil law, shall be eligible to serve as an election official.

(b) In the event a person appointed as an election official is excused from serving or otherwise disqualifies himself prior to election day, the vacancy created thereby shall be filled by the municipal governing body in the same manner that original appointments are made; provided, however, that if the vacancy is among the officers appointed to serve at a polling place where voting machines will be used after the school of instruction for election officials has been held as prescribed in subsection (a) of Section 11-46-101, a person who has received a certificate from a previous school of instruction shall, if possible, be appointed to fill the vacancy.

(c) The mayor or other chief executive officer of the municipality shall publish a list of the election officers so appointed, either by posting a list thereof showing the voting places and the election officers appointed for each such voting place at three public places in the city or town or by publishing such a list in a newspaper published in the city or town at least 10 days prior to the election.

(d) The mayor or other chief executive officer of the municipality shall notify the inspectors, clerks, and returning officers of their appointment.

(e) The returning officers, the inspectors, and the clerks at polling places where voting is solely by paper ballots shall be entitled to such compensation as the municipal governing body establishes but which in no event shall be less than $8.00 per day, and each election officer at a polling place where elections are conducted, in whole or in part, by voting machines shall be entitled to such compensation as the municipal governing body establishes but which in no event shall be less than $8.00 per day. The compensation of the election officials shall be paid as preferred claims out of the general fund of the municipality holding the election on proper proof of service rendered.

(Acts 1961, No. 664, p. 868, §8; Acts 1971, No. 158, p. 432; Acts 1976, No. 361, p. 426, §6; Acts 1982, No. 82-459, p. 724, §5; Acts 1987, No. 87-583, p. 945, §5.)