This provision sets how absentee and provisional ballots are tabulated with optical scan voting systems, including duplicating damaged ballots, handling write-ins, and switching to manual counting if needed.
The tabulation of absentee and provisional ballots cast by means of an optical scan voting system shall be conducted as follows: 1. a. If any ballot is found damaged or defective, so that it cannot be counted properly by the automatic tabulating equipment, a true duplicate shall be made by the resolution board team and substituted for the damaged or defective ballot, or, as an alternative, the valid votes on a defective ballot may be manually counted by the special precinct election board, whichever method is best suited to the system being used. All duplicate ballots shall be clearly labeled as such, and shall bear a serial number which shall also be recorded on the damaged or defective ballot. b. The special precinct election board shall also tabulate any write-in votes which were cast. Write-in votes cast for a candidate whose name appears on the ballot for the same office shall be counted as a vote for the candidate indicated, if the vote is otherwise properly cast. c. Ballots which are rejected by the tabulating equipment as blank because they have been marked with an unreadable marker shall be duplicated or tabulated as required by this subsection for damaged or defective ballots. The commissioner may instruct the special precinct election board to mark over voters’ unreadable marks using a marker compatible with the tabulating equipment. The special precinct election board shall take care to leave part of the original mark made by the voter. If it is impossible to mark over the original marks made by the voter without completely obliterating them, the ballot shall be duplicated. 2. The record printed by the automatic tabulating equipment, with the addition of a record of any write-in or other votes manually counted pursuant to this chapter, shall constitute the official return of the absentee ballot and special voters precinct. Upon completion of the tabulation of the votes, the result shall be announced and reported in substantially the manner required by section 50.11. 3. If for any reason it becomes impracticable to count all or any part of the ballots with the automatic tabulating equipment, the commissioner may direct that they be counted manually, in accordance with chapter 50 so far as applicable. [C77, 79, 81, §52.37] 92 Acts, ch 1034, §2; 93 Acts, ch 143, §29; 97 Acts, ch 170, §65; 2002 Acts, ch 1134, §60, 115; 2007 Acts, ch 190, §39; 2008 Acts, ch 1032, §156 Referred to in §52.33