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.
