Section 17-13-10

Returns of election — How made; duty of probate judge.

One copy of the certificate of the result of the election shall be signed by the inspectors and enclosed in an envelope, which shall then be securely sealed, and each of the inspectors shall write his name across every fold at which the envelope, if unfastened, could be opened. Said envelope, with certificate enclosed, shall be at once delivered to the returning officer of the precinct, who shall deliver the same in the condition received to the judge of probate. The judge of probate shall keep and preserve the same unopened until the board of supervisors meets to ascertain the result of the election. In case of loss, mutilation or absence of the original certificate of the result of the election by the inspectors of any voting place, the envelope shall be opened, and the copy therein shall be accepted as a certificate of the result of the election for that voting place.

(Code 1907, §366; Code 1923, §456; Code 1940, T. 17, §139.)