General Overview
In the
case of multiple ballot elections (for example, presidential, national
legislature, and municipal elections on the same day) an order of priority for
counting these ballots should be given to avoid mistakes and confusion in the
counting process.
This
should be part of the rules given to the counting officers during the training
sessions and in the documentation of operational procedures for counting. Instructions
should also be given for procedures to be used in cases where ballots are found
in the wrong box.
Only
one person should handle the initial sorting of ballots from a ballot box,
usually the counting official in charge of that ballot box. Spoiled ballots
should already have been separated and sealed in an envelope attached to the
ballot box. A spoiled ballot is simply one that a voter marks incorrectly and hands back to voting station officers
in exchange for a new ballot.
Spoiled
ballots should never be found in the ballot box.
Once
the ballot box is open, the counting officer or representative of political
parties and candidates verifies the validity of each ballot in the process of
counting. The counting officer must be able to distinguish between a valid
ballot and a counterfeit one by the watermark or any other mark made to
identify valid ballot papers. Any counterfeit ballots identified should be set
aside, counted and reported to the electoral management body as an attempt at
fraud.
The
counting official will divide all ballots by candidates and political party as
they are counted. At the same time, he/she can determine all potentially
rejected ballots and sets them aside. After the count of valid ballots is
complete, the counting officer must go through the pile, of potential rejected
ballots and decide on the validity of each one.
The counting
officer determines potential rejected ballots to actually be valid, and these
are separated by candidate and party. All invalid ballots, as well as any
counterfeit ballots, are counted and set aside. The counting officer will then
add to the initial number of valid ballots for each candidate and political
party the additional valid ballots, and make a total count for each candidate
and political party.
Rules
of interpretation, guidelines, and illustrations regarding the basis for
rejecting a ballot should be provided to the counting officer, and be known in
advance to facilitate the decision making process. In all cases, rejected
ballots should be put aside and kept. No ballots are to be destroyed at this
stage.
The
separation of rejected ballots is important to create an audit trail of the
count and is an essential component if there is to be a recount of the ballots.
Rejected ballots must be closely examined and the counting official should
announce the reason for rejection of each such ballot.
Political
party or candidate representatives should be able to examine the rejected
ballots although in some jurisdiction non-EMB personnel are not allowed to physically
handled ballot papers. If political party or candidate representatives do not
agree with the decision of the counting official, they should be able to make
formal objections that can form the basis for contesting the results of the
count. Clear rules must exist for recording objections made by representatives
of political parties or candidates.
Once
the spoiled, counterfeit (if any), and rejected ballots have been separated,
the valid ballots can be counted. The representatives of political parties/candidates/
options, and other persons allowed in the counting centre for the counting,
should be able to make their own count.
The
various representatives and observers witnessing the count must also be able to
see each ballot that is counted. For more efficiency, other counting officer
could assist the counting official. It must, however, be very
clear who is entitled to make a decision on the validity of any ballot in
question.
