SECTIONS 15150-15154 - California Statutes

ELECTIONS CODE

SECTION 15150-15154

15150. For every election, the elections official shall conduct a
semifinal official canvass by tabulating vote by mail and precinct
ballots and compiling the results. The semifinal official canvass
shall commence immediately upon the close of the polls and shall
continue without adjournment until all precincts are accounted for.

15151. (a) The elections official shall transmit the semifinal
official results to the Secretary of State in the manner and
according to the schedule prescribed by the Secretary of State prior
to each election, for the following:
(1) All candidates voted for statewide office.
(2) All candidates voted for the following offices:
(A) State Assembly.
(B) State Senate.
(C) Member of the United States House of Representatives.
(D) Member of the State Board of Equalization.
(E) Justice of the Court of Appeals.
(3) All persons voted for at the presidential primary or for
electors of President and Vice President of the United States.
(4) Statewide ballot measures.
(b) The elections official shall transmit the results to the
Secretary of State at intervals no greater than two hours, following
commencement of the semifinal official canvass.

15152. Neither the elections official, any member of a precinct
board, nor any other person shall count any votes, either for a
ballot proposition or candidate, until the close of the polls in that
county. After that time, the ballots for all candidates and ballot
propositions voted upon solely within the county shall be counted and
the results of the balloting made public. However, the results for
any candidate or ballot proposition also voted upon in another county
or counties shall not be made public until after all the polls in
that county and the other county or counties have closed. This
paragraph applies regardless of whether the counting is done by
manual tabulation or by a vote tabulating device.

15153. During the semifinal official canvass, write-in votes shall
be counted in accordance with Article 3 (commencing with Section
15340) of Chapter 4.

15154. (a) Any ballot that is not marked as provided by law or that
is marked or signed by the voter so that it can be identified by
others shall be rejected. The rejected ballots shall be placed in the
package marked for voted ballots or in a separate container as
directed by the elections official. All rejected ballots shall have
written thereon the cause for rejection and be signed by a majority
of processing board members who are assigned by the elections
official to process ballots.
(b) The following ballot conditions shall not render a ballot
invalid:
(1) Soiled or defaced.
(2) Two or more impressions of the voting stamp or mark in one
voting square.
(c) If a voter indicates, either by a combination of both marking
and writing in, a choice of more names than there are candidates to
be elected or nominated for any office, or if for any reason the
choice of the voter is impossible to determine, the vote for that
office shall not be counted, but the remainder of the ballot, if
properly marked, shall be counted.
(d) This section applies to all ballots counted pursuant to this
chapter and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 15300).