Section 17-13-14 Counting of Ballots; Materials to Be Sealed; Delivery and Retention of Materials; Posting of Certificate of Result.

(a) No ballot shall be counted until the polls are closed; and, before counting any ballot or examining the same, the voters’ poll list, as provided in Section 17-9-15, shall be securely sealed in an envelope designated to the appropriate political party chair and the inspector shall write his or her 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 inspector shall seal in a separate voted ballots container all the ballots cast at such election. The following items shall be placed into a records of election container, which shall then be securely sealed: (1) One certificate of the results. (2) The spoiled ballot envelope. (3) Clerk’s poll list. (4) All partial ballot pads. (5) Stubs of ballot pads. The inspector shall also, in an envelope addressed to the chair of the county executive committee or other governing body of each political party participating, seal up the following: (1) One certificate of the results. (2) The voters’ poll list. Such envelopes, with those contents therein, together with the voted ballots container, shall thereupon be immediately delivered to the sheriff. The sheriff or sheriff’s designee shall keep the voted ballots container and record of election container securely in his or her possession in accordance with state and federal law. The sheriff shall separately deliver to the chair, or co-chair, of the county executive committee or other governing body of each political party the envelope addressed to the chair, containing the certificate of the results by 10:00 A.M. on the Wednesday following the primary. (b) Not later than two hours after the polls are closed, the inspector shall also post in a conspicuous place at the polling place, for public inspection there, a copy of the certificate of the result.