Inspection of advance voting documents

The advance voting documents that have arrived at the central municipal election board shall be inspected without opening the ballot envelopes in meetings which are to be held so that the advance voting documents that have arrived before 19.00 on the Friday preceding the election day can be dealt with in these meetings. Covering envelopes that arrive after the determined time limit are left unopened and disregarded.

A vote shall be disregarded, if:

1)  the person who has voted in advance has not been entered in the voting register;

2)  a marking concerning the voter or a candidate or another inappropriate marking has been made on the ballot envelope; (247/2002)

3)  the covering letter is so deficient or unclear that it is not possible to be certain of whether the voting has taken place as provided by law or who the voter is, or;

4)  in at-home voting, the signature referred in section 54 is missing from the covering letter.

If a vote is disregarded, information on this shall be entered in the minutes that are kept of the meeting, and the disregarded ballot envelope with its covering letter and envelope shall be enclosed to the minutes.

If a covering letter with no marking referred to in section 60, subsection 2 on it and a ballot envelope enclosed to it can be accepted, an entry indicating that the voter specified in the covering letter has used his or her right to vote shall be made in the voting register. If the acceptance takes place later than at 19.00 on the 4th day before the election day, a marking indicating that the person specified in the covering letter has voted shall also be made in the electoral roll in the manner determined by the Ministry of Justice. If the central municipal election board has for special reasons, under section 71, subsection 3, been delivered electoral rolls printed from the voting register immediately after it had become legally valid, the marking is to be made only on the electoral roll.

After the advance voting documents have been inspected, the central municipal election board shall sort the accepted ballot envelopes by voting districts, count the number of ballot envelopes by voting districts, and enter the numbers in the minutes. The accepted ballot envelopes, sorted by voting districts and separated from the covering letters, shall be kept unopened in a safe place. (247/2002)