Massachusetts § 33H - Election officers for tabulation center; tabulation of votes

§ 33H. Election officers for tabulation center; tabulation of votes

Section 33H. For any tabulation center designated under section thirty-three F, the mayor or the board of selectmen shall appoint, in conformity with sections eleven to twenty-two, inclusive, the following election officers: a warden, a deputy warden, a clerk and deputy clerk and as many inspectors and deputy inspectors as the city or town clerk determines to be necessary.

Each city or town chairman of a political party may appoint in writing a qualified computer expert to monitor the electronic counting of ballots at such tabulating center. He shall be assigned by the presiding officer to a position within the center which will enable him to observe all operations.

The warden shall be the presiding officer at the tabulation center; provided, however, that the city or town clerk shall be the presiding officer at a central tabulation center, and shall assign to the election officers such duties as will insure the accurate and complete tabulation of the ballots, in accordance with such rules and regulations for the operation of such tabulation center as are promulgated by the office of the state secretary.

Each precinct shall be tabulated separately. The sheet showing the result, as printed by the computer or tabulating unit, shall be fastened to the precinct record for transmittal to the office of the city or town clerk, and the warden and clerk shall be responsible for said sheet and shall each sign it. Each precinct tabulation sheet shall show the total number of names checked on the voting lists, the total number of ballots cast, the names of all persons voted for, the number of votes for each person and the title of the office for which he was a candidate, 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. The machine record shall be added to the precinct record sheet showing hand-counted ballot totals, and the precinct record sheet shall then be signed by the precinct warden and clerk. The presiding officer at the tabulation center, or such election officer as he shall designate, shall then publicly and in the presence of the other election officers, audibly and distinctly, announce the number of votes cast for each candidate for each office, and the number of affirmative and negative votes cast upon any question. Such announcement may be made for each precinct, as soon as the precinct record has been completed.

Any ballot or card which is rejected by the computer or counting unit, or which is mutilated so that it cannot be inserted in the computer or counting unit, shall be counted by hand by two inspectors of different political parties, and the result of the count of all such ballots shall be entered separately on the precinct record sheet, and added to the machine tabulated totals and the absentee ballot and other totals thereon. No such rejected or mutilated ballot shall be repunched for inserting into the computer or tabulating unit.