Section 17-16-32

Procedure for counting of ballots and returning results of election; posting of certificate of results at polling place.

(a) No ballot shall be counted until the polls are closed; and, before counting any ballot or examining the same, one of the official lists of voters for each party participating in the primary which was furnished by the probate judge and the numbered poll list signed by the voters participating in the primary election shall be securely sealed in separate envelopes and each of the inspectors shall write his name across every fold at which the envelope, if fastened, could be opened. After the counting of the votes is finished and certificates of the result have been prepared and signed, the inspectors shall seal up in a separate envelope all the ballots cast at such election and shall put such ballots so sealed into the proper party ballot box and shall also put into the ballot box one tally sheet and one certificate of the results, and the ballot box with those contents in it shall be securely locked and sealed. The inspectors shall also, in an envelope addressed to the chairman of the county executive committee or other governing body of each political party participating, seal up one certificate of the results and one tally sheet, and such envelope, with those contents in it, together with the proper party ballot box, shall thereupon be immediately delivered to the returning officer, who shall keep the same securely in his possession and, by 10:00 A.M. on Wednesday following the primary, shall carry and deliver the box and envelope separately to the proper chairmen of the county executive committees of the political parties participating in such primary, at the office of the probate judge of the county.

(b) The inspectors shall also post in a conspicuous place at the polling place, for public inspection there, a copy of the certificate of the result.

(Acts 1975, No. 1196, p. 2349, §28.)