the purpose of voting, shall deposit it in the ballot box, or removed. shall return it to a ballot clerk; and no person shall take 1893, c. 417, § 169. or remove any ballot from the polling place or outside the guard rail before the close of the polls. No voter, other Voter not to than an election officer and supervisor, who has once reënter enentered such enclosed space, and whose name has been closed checked on the voting list in charge of the ballot clerk, shall be allowed to reënter such enclosed space during the election. space. challenged. 195. If in any state or city election the right of a Proceedperson offering to vote is challenged for any cause rec-ings when ognized by law, the presiding officer shall require the vote is name and residence of the person so offering to vote, to Ibid. § 170. be written by himself or by some one in his behalf, on the outside of the ballot so offered, and the presiding officer shall add thereto the name of the person so challenging and the assigned cause for which the challenge is made, before such ballot shall be received; but nothing in this Certain balsection shall be construed as permitting election officers lots not to to receive any ballot which by law they are required to refuse. No election officer, otherwise than as above re- Statements quired or permitted, and no person other than an election not to be officer shall make any statement or give any information regarding in regard to a ballot cast by a voter so challenged at any challenged such election, except as required by law. be received. made votes. State blanks used, etc. § 171. COUNTING OF VOTES. 196. The blank forms and apparatus provided by the appa secretary of the Commonwealth, in accordance with the provisions of said chapter four hundred and seventeen, shall be used in ascertaining the result of the election or vote in all state elections in cities, in all city elections, and also in taking the vote upon any proposed amendment to the constitution, upon the question of granting licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors, and upon any other question submitted by statute to the voters of the Commonwealth, or of any city for which ballots are by law provided at the expense of the Commonwealth or of any city. If, however, for any cause, it shall become impossible at any such election, or in taking any such vote, to use such blank forms or apparatus, or any of them, the canvass and counting of the votes shall proceed in such manner as the presiding officer of the polling place shall direct; and in such case, the clerk thereof shall make a record of the facts pertaining to the failure to use such blank forms or apparatus, and shall enclose an attested copy of such record in the envelope with the ballots cast at such election or in taking such vote. Proceed ings when impossible to use. Proceed. Ibid. § 172. 197. At every election and in the taking of every ings at close vote at which the state ballot box and blank forms and of polls. apparatus are used, as required by section one hundred and fifty (one hundred and seventy-six of this digest) of said chapter four hundred and seventeen and the preceding section, the clerk of the voting precinct shall, as soon as the polls are closed, make a record of the ballot box register; the election officers in charge of each voting list shall publicly, and in the presence of the other election officers, count in a distinct and audible voice, the number of names checked on each list and announce the whole number of names checked thereon; and the ballot box shall then be opened by the presiding officer and the ballots shall be taken therefrom. The ballots shall, under the direction of the The presiding officer, be audibly counted, one by one, and Canvass of when the counting is completed, the whole number of ballots. ballots cast shall be publicly announced by him. The ballots shall then be divided into blocks or packages, each of a convenient number for canvassing and counting, and, except as hereinafter in this section provided, each block or package shall be canvassed and counted by two election officers representing the two leading political parties, detailed for the purpose by the presiding officer; each election officer, in so canvassing and counting votes, shall be under the inspection of an election officer of a different political party; and the result of each such canvass and count shall be reported to the presiding officer, who shall cause each such result to be correctly recorded on the blank forms provided by law for the purpose. clerk of the voting precinct shall, when the result of the canvass and counting of votes has ascertained, make public announcement thereof in open meeting, and shall, in open meeting, enter, in words at length in his records, the total number of names of male and female voters checked on the voting lists, the total number of ballots cast, the names of all persons voted for, the number of votes received for each person and the title of the office for which he was proposed, the number of blank ballots for each office, and the number of affirmative and negative votes in answer to any question submitted to the voters. Each clerk of a voting precinct shall forthwith make a copy of the record so made by him, seal and certify the same, and deliver it to the board of election commissioners, who shall forthwith enter the same in the city records. total Announcebeen ment, rec ord, etc. lots, etc., to be in The checked voting lists and all ballots, after being re- Proceed. moved from the ballot box, shall be kept within the unob- ings, bal. structed view of the voters present at the polling place, until they have been enclosed and sealed in accordance view, etc. with the provisions of said chapter four hundred and seventeen, and all proceedings in the canvass and counting of votes shall be public and within the unobstructed view of the voters as aforesaid; and no adjournment or post Certain bal. be counted. $173. ponement shall be had until the canvass and counting are fully completed, and the voting lists and ballots have been enclosed and sealed as by law provided. 198. No ballots shall be counted in ascertaining the lots not to result in any election or in the taking of any vote, in 1893, c. 417, which the use of a state ballot box is required in accordance with the provisions of section one hundred and fifty (one hundred and seventy-six of this digest) of this title, unless they have been deposited in such ballot box and cancelled thereby, or have been otherwise deposited in accordance with the provisions of said section; and no ballots shall be counted in any election for which ballots are by law provided at the expense of the Commonwealth or of the city unless they have been provided in accordance with the provisions of said chapter four hundred and seventeen. If a voter marks more names than there are persons to be elected to an office, or if for any reason it is impossible to determine the choice of the voter for any office to be filled, his ballot shall not be counted for such office. Ballots cast but not counted, for any purpose, shall be marked 66 defective," on the outside thereof, and shall be kept and preserved the same as ballots which are counted. Defective ballots. Ballots cast to be sealed up, in dorsed, etc. Ibid. § 174. 199. The presiding officer at every polling place in a city at elections of state and city officers shall cause all the ballots cast, after they have been duly canvassed and counted and record thereof has been made, publicly to be enclosed in an envelope and sealed with the seal by law provided for the purpose, and also with the private seal of any election officer who may desire to affix the same; and a majority of the election officers of the voting precinct shall indorse upon such envelope for what officers and in what polling place the ballots were cast, and the date of the election; and they shall make a certificate on the envelope that all the ballots cast for state (or) city officers, as the case may be, by the voters of such precinct and none other, are contained in such envelope. lots, etc., to The presiding officer at each polling place in every such Voting election shall cause the voting lists used at such election lists, unto be enclosed in an envelope and sealed as aforesaid, and used bala majority of the election officers of the voting precinct be sealed shall certify thereon to the identity of the voting lists up, certified, so enclosed. The presiding officer shall likewise cause etc. all ballots which are not distributed to voters and all ballots which are returned by voters and cancelled, to be enclosed in an envelope and sealed as aforesaid, and shall make a certificate on the envelope as to the identity of such undistributed and cancelled ballots. 200. to election The warden of each polling place immediately Delivery of after the ballots and voting lists have been put in envelopes ballot and sealed as provided by law shall place said envelopes, boxes, etc., together with the ballot boxes, ballot box seals and commiscounting apparatus, in the custody of a police officer of sioners. said city, and said police officer shall forthwith deliver the 1895, c. 449, same in person to said board of election commissioners, § 7. at the place designated by them. nished. 201. The board of election commissioners may, after a Voting voting list has been used in any voting precinct and trans- list, copies mitted to them in accordance with the preceding section, may be fur. unseal and open the envelope containing such voting list 1893, c. 417, and may make a copy of the list as checked, upon written § 175. application therefor, signed by not less than ten legal voters in the ward of which such precinct forms a part. Immediately after any such voting list has been so copied, Voting said board shall again enclose the list in an envelope and lists, to be again seal the same, and shall certify on the envelope to the sealed, certified, etc. identity and original condition of such lists. 202. struction, Said board shall receive the envelope containing Ballots the ballots cast at an election and transmitted to them in cast, cusaccordance with the preceding sections, and shall retain tody, dethe same in their custody subject to the requirements of law, etc. and until such requirements have been complied with; and, Ibid. § 176. as soon as may be thereafter, said board shall cause all such ballots to be destroyed, without examining them or permitting them to be examined by any person whatsoever, and shall make an entry in the city records that all such ballots have been so destroyed. |