1.03.130 Counting Procedure

(a) Immediately following the casting of the last ballot and the closure of the polling place, the Election Board shall, in the presence of any appointed observers and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Police Officer, open the ballot boxes one by one. As ballots are examined, the Election Board shall determine the validly of ballots and:

(1) Reject and write or stamp "VOID" on all those ballots:

(A) That do not have any markings of them;

(B) That have marks other than one (X) or check mark (\uF0FC), or mark approved by the Election Board, in the assigned space;

(C) That contains more than one vote on the ballot; and

(D) That contains the name of a write-in candidate who has not filed a "Statement of Write-In Candidacy" to the Election Board by the close of voting.

(2) Report in writing on the backside of the ballot the reason for the rejection citing the sub-section from this section. The rejected ballot will be signed by all Election Board members present to confirm the invalidity of the rejected ballot.

(3) The ruling of the Election Board regarding the validity of a ballot may be appealed to the Appeal Panel after the unofficial results have been released.

(b) In the presence of the Election Board and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Police Officer, the election worker(s) shall:

(1) Count the confirmed ballots for each Candidate, Write-In Candidate, or referendum question; and

(2) Count the rejected ballots indicating the number of SPOILED and VOID.

(c) The Election Board may use electronic voting and/or counting equipment and shall adopt regulations for their use that protects the integrity of the voting and counting process.