Sec. 9-302. Return of ballots to box; sealing and preservation. - Connecticut Statutes

      Sec. 9-302. Return of ballots to box; sealing and preservation. All the ballots cast at any election shall, immediately after they are counted, be returned by the moderator to the ballot box or boxes, which shall, in the presence of two or more of the official counters and before the box or boxes have been removed from the enclosure where the ballots have been counted, be securely sealed and locked by the moderator, and the ballot box sealing stamp shall be signed by the registrars or deputy registrars of different parties and by the moderator, and the moderator shall apply said stamp securely to each ballot box so as to effectually seal the opening through which the ballots are deposited and also the keyhole of each of such ballot boxes and so that such boxes cannot be opened without breaking the ballot box stamp. The moderator shall thereupon deposit the box in the municipal clerk's office, to be opened and examined only by those officially authorized so to do, and such clerk shall carefully preserve such box with seal unbroken for one hundred eighty days after such election or until the termination of any judicial proceeding requiring the preservation of the ballots in such boxes, when he shall forthwith open such boxes and destroy such ballots without inspection. If such boxes are opened under authority of a judge of the Superior Court charged with inquiring into an election, such judge shall see that all the ballots and the accompanying certificates are returned to the boxes and that the same are effectually sealed again.

      (1949 Rev., S. 520, 1074, 1075; 1953, S. 779d; P.A. 87-382, S. 33, 55.)

      History: P.A. 87-382 substituted "one hundred eighty days" for "six months".

      When ballots should be counted by a judge, though box is unsealed. 60 C. 352. Cited. 216 C. 253.