§ § 16.1-15-09Voting systems - Returns.

1. Election officers shall generate reports of votes cast and counted by voting systems for
all candidates and for any measures or questions as provided by law or rule.
2. Within the ability of a tabulation device to accurately do so, all votes must be counted
by the machine. After the election results have been accumulated centrally in the
county auditor's office, if the number or percentage of write-in votes for an office meet
the criteria in section 16.1-15-01.1, the county canvassing board shall review and
approve the canvass of the votes for the write-in names for that office conducted by
the county auditor's office to determine final election results.
3. The county auditor shall designate the public places where absentee and mail ballots
must be delivered and counted in the presence of the election inspector and at least
two election judges.
4. Each voting system must generate a printed record at the beginning of the system's
operation which verifies the tabulating elements for each candidate position and each
question and the public counter are all set at zero. The voting system also must be
equipped with an element that generates, at the end of the system's operation, a
printed record of the total number of voters whose ballots have been tabulated, the
total number of votes cast for each candidate on the ballot, and the total number of
votes cast for or against any measure appearing on the ballot. The election inspector
and election judges shall certify both printed records.
5. If any ballot is damaged or defective so the ballot cannot be counted properly by the
voting system, a true duplicate copy must be made by election officials of opposed
interests and substituted for the damaged or defective ballot. All duplicate ballots must
be labeled duplicate clearly, must bear a serial number that must be recorded on the
damaged or defective ballot, and must be wrapped and delivered with other ballots to
the county recorder.

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