Reconciling to Ballot Account Totals
It is
recommended that a verification of the count should be done once the ballots of
one ballot box are counted.
This
verification is usually the last one made before preparing the statement of the
vote for the ballot box and transmitting the information to the person in
charge of making the cumulative statement of the vote for the counting centre.
This
last verification is important to make sure that no ballots have been
introduced or removed that would modify the results in favour or against one
candidate or party.
This
last verification includes comparison of the reconciliation done previously,
both before opening the ballot box and when the ballot box was opened.
The
total of ballots for each candidate or party plus the rejected ballots, the
unused ballots, and the spoiled ballots should match with the total number of
ballots received at the opening of the voting station. This information was
provided on the ballot account form completed at the voting station.
If
errors are detected, the count sheet should be verified against count sheets of
other counting officers working at the same table on the same ballot box. If
the error is still not found, then all the ballots counted per
candidate/party/option should be re-examined and recounted.
