Home > 2.1.1 Electoral commissions > AUSTRIA - Federal Law on National Council Elections (Regulations on National Council Elections 1992 – NRWO)
 
 
 
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§ 84
 

Verification of the ballot papers Counting of the votes


(1) When the time period set for the elections has expired and all voters who were in the polling station or in the waiting room determined by the elections authorities have voted, the respective elections authority declares the voting closed. After the end of the voting, the polling station in which only the members of the elections authorities, their assistants, the persons of confidence defined in § 15, para 4, the election witnesses and the persons accredited according to § 20a, para 3, are allowed to remain, is to be closed.


(2) Taking into consideration any additional remarks made in the vote record, the elections authorities determine first how many official ballot papers were handed in all together and check, whether this number, together with the number of official ballot papers which have not been used, equals the total number of official ballot papers taken-in before the opening of the vote.


(3) The elections authority has to empty the ballot box and separate the beige ballot paper envelopes, count them and pack them. The envelope has to be closed and sealed. On it the number of unopened ballot paper envelopes contained in it is to be indicated.
Thereafter, the elections authority has to thoroughly shuffle the remaining ballot paper envelopes and determine:


a) the number of ballot paper envelopes handed in by the voters;


b) the number of voters entered into the vote record;


c) the probable reasons why the number of ballot paper envelopes under a) together with the number of ballot paper envelopes handed in by the voters from other regional constituencies voting with voting cards does not correspond to the number of voters under b).


(4) The elections authorities have to then open the ballot paper envelopes handed in by the voters from the respective regional constituency, take out the ballot papers, whose validity is to be checked, number the invalid ballot papers consecutively and determine:


a) the total number of valid and invalid ballot papers being handed in;


b) the number of invalid ballot papers being handed in;


c) the number of valid papers being handed in;


d) the number of valid votes cast for each party (party totals)


(5) The results achieved according to para 4, as well as the number of ballot paper envelopes handed in by voters from other regional constituencies voting with voting cards, are to be written down in the record of the election procedure (§ 85) and reported as quickly as possible to the municipalities outside of Vienna which are divided into wards, to the municipal elections authorities in the remaining municipalities and to the district elections authority in Vienna (immediate notification). When there were no votes cast by voters from other regional constituencies this has to be explicitly indicated.


(6) After that, the elections authority has to determine the preferential votes for each candidate on the party lists of a provincial list of candidates published in the provincial constituency and enter them in a preferential vote record.


(7) If the polling station is a polling station provided for voters voting with voting card only, all required activities and determinations concerning blue ballot paper envelopes, in particular the examination of ballot papers, do not apply.