§ Article 76Keeping of the Records of Voters who Have Voted by Post and the Counting of their Votes and Preference Votes for the Candidate

1. After the counting of ballot papers found in the ballot box, ballot papers received by post shall be calculated in the following procedure:
1) the chairman of the polling district committee shall present, unopened, all covering envelopes received by post. Their number shall be announced and entered in the vote counting record of the polling district;
2) covering envelopes shall be opened one at a time;
3) a voter certificate shall be taken out of the covering envelope, the voter’s surname shall be read aloud, it shall be checked against the electoral roll of the polling district, and the ballot paper envelope shall be stamped with the seal of the polling district. If the person on the voter certificate is not on the electoral roll; if the voter has already signed the electoral roll indicating that he has already voted in the polling district; if another envelope for voting by post has been received from the same voter; if there is no voter certificate in the covering envelope; or if there is more than one ballot paper envelope in the covering envelope - the seal shall not be affixed and the ballot paper (ballot papers) in the envelope shall be considered invalid, the envelope shall not be opened. This fact must be noted on the ballot paper envelope (ballot paper envelopes);
4) in the voter list of the polling district, the words "voted by post" or “VBP” shall be written by the surname of the voter whose vote has been received by post;
5) the sealed ballot paper envelope shall be cast into the ballot box prepared and sealed according to the established requirements; and
6) when all envelopes received by post have been inspected, the ballot box shall be opened and the sealed ballot paper envelopes shall be opened. If there is more than one ballot paper in the ballot paper envelope, all ballot papers in the envelope shall be considered invalid. Then the votes received by post shall be counted according to the requirements of Article 75.
2. If only one sealed ballot paper envelope for voting by post is in the polling district (committee), it, in order to protect the secrecy of voting, shall not be opened, and shall be handed over to the electoral committee which has formed this committee, which shall enter the results of the voting in its vote counting record.
3. After votes cast in a polling station and by post for lists of candidates have been counted, all data have been entered into the first part of the vote counting record of the polling district, the record and the first part of the record have been signed by the committee members, chairman and election observers, and the polling district electoral committee has announced to the municipal electoral committee that the votes for lists of candidates were counted, the polling district electoral committee may commence counting preference votes cast for candidates. The polling district electoral committee may decide to count preference votes at once or, with the consent of the chairman of the municipal electoral committee, to count them at another time, but not later than within 24 hours. If it is decided to count preference votes at another time, the ballot papers to be counted shall, in a manner prescribed by the Central Electoral Committee, be transferred in a special envelope for safekeeping to the municipal electoral committee. In this case, the municipal electoral committee, after it has accepted election documents from the polling district electoral committee, must adopt one of the following decisions on the counting of preference votes in the ballot papers transferred to it:
1) to return ballot papers and to instruct the polling district electoral committee from which it has got the preference votes to count such votes;
2) to change the decision of the polling district electoral committee from which the election documents have been received, regarding the counting of preference votes and to instruct the electoral committee of another polling district to count preference votes or to count preference votes itself. In this case, the municipal electoral committee must set the place and time of counting preference votes.
4. If the electoral committee of the polling district counts preference votes at another time or recounts ballot papers, it shall, in the presence of at least 3/5 of the members, check whether the special envelope (envelopes) has not been opened. If the polling district electoral committee adopts a decision that the envelope has been tampered with or its contents have been changed, an act shall be drawn up concerning this fact, the envelope shall be packed, the package shall be sealed and the votes shall not be counted. The package shall be delivered to the municipal electoral committee. The Central Electoral Committee shall be immediately notified about this. The municipal electoral committee shall adopt a decision pertaining to the counting of the votes which are in the package. Upon having ascertained that the envelope has not been tampered with, counting of preference votes shall commence. Information on the time and place of the counting of preference votes as well as in the event when the municipal electoral committee decides to recount ballot papers, must, not later than one hour before the commencement of the counting, be announced on two notice boards: one installed in the building in which the headquarters of the municipal electoral committee is situated, and the other in the premises in which preference votes shall be counted. When counting preference votes, election observers may attend and a police officer must be on duty. All ballot papers shall be put on tables on which no there must not be any other documents and writing materials (except black lead pencils), and the committee shall check if there are all the ballot papers from which preference votes must be counted. The concrete procedure of preference votes counting shall be established by the Central Electoral Committee not later than 7 days prior to elections. Preference votes must be counted in such a way that such procedure might be observed by all the persons present during the counting of votes and would be able to ascertain that votes are counted fairly and justly. Counted votes shall be recorded in the second part of the vote counting record of the polling district, the ballot papers shall be packed, the package shall be sealed and transferred to the municipal electoral committee.