Home > 1.3.2.3 Counting procedures/validity of ballots > ICELAND - Act No. 24 Concerning Parliamentary Elections to the Althing
 
 
 
Download file    
 
 
Article 103
 

Election results in the constituencies


[If the senior electoral commission or, as the case may be, the regional electoral commission, and the agents of the lists agree that some ballot paper is invalid, then the paper shall be considered invalid. In the event that there is a dispute concerning the validity of the ballot paper such disputed papers shall be ruled on as soon as they appear. The number of ballot papers that are invalid and the reasons therefore shall be booked in the record of minutes.


If there is a dispute within the regional electoral commission or between the regional electoral commission and some agent as to whether a ballot paper is valid or invalid, then the regional electoral commission shall send it to the senior electoral commission, which shall render a ruling with regard to its validity.


If a dispute emerges between the members of the senior electoral commission regarding the validity of a ballot paper then the decision shall be decided by majority vote. In the event that there is a dispute between the senior electoral commission and one of the agents with regard to the validity or invalidity of a ballot paper, then these ballot papers shall be placed in two special envelopes; into one go the papers which the electoral commission has ruled are valid, and into the other the papers that it has ruled invalid.


When the votes have been added up under the watchful supervision of the agents, the regional electoral commission presents the result of its counting to the senior electoral commission, which enters the results of the election into the record of the minutes and announces it to those present. It should be ensured that the sum total of the votes corresponds to the number of those who have cast their votes in the constituency according to the reports of the local electoral commissions, and that everything corresponds to the sum of the left-over papers.


If the counting was done by the regional electoral commission, it shall, after having completed its commission, send all used ballot papers under seal to the senior electoral commission, and the valid and invalid ballot papers shall be kept separate. In addition, it will send under seal to the senior electoral commission the following items: those pre-election ballots that are to go to the polling ward that comes under the senior electoral commission, cf. paragraph 4 of Article 90; all the electoral registers in sealed packaging; the election log books of the local electoral commissions which it has received; and also its own record of minutes. The senior electoral commission shall handle these materials in the same manner as those that are in its custody.]1)


1)Act No. 15/2003, Article 19.