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Article 75
 

Validation of Ballot Letters,Establishment and Declaration of the Postal Ballot Result

(1) A member of the Postal Ballot Board designated by the Postal Ballot Officer shall open the ballot letters one by one and take out the polling card and the voting envelope. If the polling card is listed in a register of invalidated polling cards or if doubts are expressed about the validity of the polling card, the ballot letter and its contents shall be set aside under the supervision of the Postal Ballot Officer and subsequently processed in accordance with Paragraph 2 below. The voting envelopes taken from the other ballot letters shall be put in the ballot box unopened; the polling cards shall be collected together.

(2) If doubts are expressed about a ballot letter, the Postal Ballot Board shall decide on validation or rejection. The ballot letter must be rejected by the Postal Ballot Board if any of the circumstances described in Article 39 (4), sentence 1, nos. 2 to 8 exist. The number of ballot letters queried, the number validated by special decision and the number rejected shall be minuted in the electoral record. The rejected ballot letters and their contents shall be set aside, marked with a note of the reason for rejection, resealed and allocated a serial number. The senders of rejected ballot letters shall not be counted as voters; their votes shall be deemed uncast (Article 39 (4), sentence 2 of the Law).

(3) Once the voting envelopes have been taken out of the ballot letters and put in the ballot box, but not before the end of the general polling hours, the Postal Ballot Board shall establish and declare the election result, stating the details specified in Article 67 (2) to (6) in accordance with Articles 68 to 70, which shall be applied as appropriate.

(4) As soon as the result of the postal ballot is declared, the Postal Ballot Officer shall re-port it by the quickest means to the District Returning Officer. If Postal Ballot Boards are appointed for one or more communes within the constituency by virtue of an order pursuant to Article 8 (3) of the Law, the Postal Ballot Officer shall report the result of the postal ballot to the local authority responsible for him or her, which shall incorporate it into the express report for the area of the commune; if Postal Ballot Boards are appointed for each district within a constituency, the Postal Ballot Officer shall report the result to the administrative authority of the district, which shall compile the postal ballot results and report them in turn to the District Returning Officer. The express reports shall be made in accordance with the specimen at Annex 28.

(5) A record of the validation of ballot letters as well as of the establishment and declaration of the postal ballot result shall be drawn up by the clerk in accordance with the specimen at Annex 31. Appended to it shall be

1. the ballot papers and voting envelopes on which the Postal Ballot Board has taken special decisions in accordance with Article 69 (6),

2. the ballot letters rejected by the Postal Ballot Board,

3. the polling cards on which the Postal Ballot Board has taken a decision but which have not been rejected.

(6) The Postal Ballot Officer shall hand over the election record and its annexes to the District Returning Officer immediately. If Postal Ballot Boards are appointed for one or more communes or for each district within a constituency, the election record and its annexes shall be handed over to the local authority of the commune, to the local authority charged to administer the postal ballot or to the administrative authority of the district. The competent local authority of the commune or the administrative authority of the district shall forward the election records and their annexes to the District Returning Officer and, if required, append compilations of the postal ballot result in accordance with the specimen at Annex 30. Article 72 (4) shall apply as appropriate.

(7) The Postal Ballot Officer shall pack the electoral documents in accordance with Article 73 (1) and hand them over to the District Returning Officer, who shall store them until their destruction is authorized (Article 90). If Postal Ballot Boards are appointed for one or more communes or for each district within a constituency, the Postal Ballot Officer shall hand over the documents to the authority which appointed the Postal Ballot Board. This authority shall proceed in accordance with Article 73 (2) to (4). Article 72 (4) shall apply as appropriate.

(8) In all other respects, the provisions applying to the Electoral Board shall apply as appropriate to the procedure of the Postal Ballot Board.

(9) The result of the postal ballot shall be incorporated by the District Returning Officer into the express report pursuant to Article 71 (3) and into the compilation of the final election result for the constituency pursuant to Article 76.

(10) If the Federal Returning Officer finds that as a result of natural disasters or by force majeure the regular conveyance of ballot letters has been disrupted in the electoral area, the ballot letters thereby affected shall be deemed to have been received in time if their post-mark indicates that they have been posted not later than the day before the election. In such an event, the ballot letters affected by the occurrence shall be set aside and forwarded to the Postal Ballot Board for the deferred declaration of the postal ballot result as soon as the consequences of the occurrence have been remedied, but not later than the twenty-first day after the election.