Section 35B Casting challenged votes where voting machines used; counting votes - Massachusetts Statutes

Section 35B. If the right of a person offering to vote by the use of such a machine is challenged, said person shall not be permitted to cast his vote by the use thereof, but shall be supplied by the presiding officer at the polling place with an official ballot prepared under section thirty-five A, which shall be received, subject to section eighty-five. Upon the deposit of such ballot in the ballot box, the election officers having charge of the voting lists shall cause to be placed thereon, opposite the name of the person casting such ballot, the letters in capitals “C.V.”

After the closing of the polls, where voting machines are used, the warden, or an election officer, in the presence of an election officer of a different political party, and subject to verification by any or all election officers present, shall, in the order of the offices as arranged on the voting machine, read and announce in distinct tones the result as shown by the counters. He shall, in the same manner, read and announce the vote on each constitutional amendment or other question as shown by the same machine. Such results and votes may be read by means of a printer mechanism, if the voting machine is so equipped, and such results may be accumulated through the use of memory cartridges which are read directly or indirectly to a central computer. As each vote is read and announced, it shall be recorded on the total sheets, and, when completed, the record thereof shall be compared with the numbers on the counters of the machine. The votes written in, or voted by pasters or stickers, for persons not named on the ballot labels of the machine shall then be announced and recorded. The result shall, in like manner, be read, compared and announced, one at a time, from each machine in the polling place until all the votes on the counters have been read, compared and announced, after which the total vote shall be tabulated and entered in the official returns. A candidate for public office whose name appears on said machine, or his representative duly authorized in writing shall, within one hour after the official vote for said office has been announced, be permitted to examine and check the vote recorded on each voting machine. After the vote is tabulated, the election officers shall lock and seal each machine, and enclose and seal the keys in an envelope on which shall be written the number, if any, and the location of the election precinct or polling place, the number of the machine, the number on the seal and the number registered on the counters. In tabulating the votes, total sheets shall be used upon which shall be set down the total number of votes cast for each candidate and the total number of yes and no votes cast on each question as recorded by the voting machines. The totals of ballots cast by challenged voters and of absent voter ballots shall be recorded separately or on separate total sheets and added to the total vote cast by the use of voting machines for each candidate and each question. The total sheets shall be sealed up in envelopes and transmitted to the city or town clerk with the ballots, keys, voting lists and records of the election officers.

All provisions of law relative to primaries and elections, so far as applicable to the use of voting machines and not inconsistent with this section or sections thirty-two, thirty-five A, thirty-seven or regulations promulgated thereunder, shall apply to all primaries and elections held at polling places where voting machines are used.