Ballots cast on direct recording electronic voting devices must be verified as matching the signed political party declaration.

(1) The voter must sign a standard ballot declaration form and select one political party ballot declaration.

(2) If using DREs, the county auditor must use a method that verifies the voter only casts votes according to the political party declaration marked. DREs may be programmed as separate ballots. For consolidated ballots, the county auditor must use one of the following methods:

(a) Provide a separate DRE designated for each political party.

(i) Verify the corresponding party ballots were cast on each device.

(ii) If all ballots cast are of the corresponding political party, all ballots shall be tabulated.

(iii) If any ballots were cast of the opposite political party, those ballots shall be referred to the canvassing board for rejection. All remaining ballots of the corresponding political party shall be duplicated and tabulated; or

(b) Provide a single DRE programmed with all political party ballots.

(i) Keep signed political party declarations in order of voting.

(ii) Compare the party declaration to the corresponding party vote on the ballot. If all ballots cast are of the corresponding political party, ballots shall be tabulated.

(iii) If any ballot fails to correspond with the declared party:

(A) Separate each ballot record and place each in a security envelope.

(B) Place the associated political party declaration with the security envelope into an outer mailing envelope.

(C) Process the ballots in the same manner as electronically returned ballots;

(c) Any other method approved by the secretary of state.

(3) The number of DRE votes must be reconciled with the number of signed declarations.