Marking of ballot paper envelopes and counting of ballot papers received in ballot paper envelopes

1. In the electoral roll of a polling district, the words ‘balsavo vokais’ (meaning, voted by the envelopes) or the acronym ‘BV’ shall be entered against the surname of a voter whose vote is received in the ballot paper envelope, while in the electronic electoral roll of the polling districts that have access to the electronic electoral roll shall indicate that the voter has voted. The sealed ballot paper envelope shall be placed in the ballot box set up and stamped in accordance with the prescribed requirements.

2. Once all the external voting envelopes received have been checked, the ballot box shall be opened and the stamped ballot paper envelopes shall be opened.

3. The ballot papers found in the ballot paper envelopes shall be counted in the order established in Article 149.

4. The ballot paper received in the ballot paper envelope shall be valid only in the polling district on whose electoral roll the voter has been entered.

5. If there is only one stamped ballot paper envelope in the polling district, in order to protect the secrecy of the ballot, it shall not be opened and shall be handed over to the constituency electoral committee or the municipal electoral committee which had set up the said committee and the constituency electoral committee or the municipal electoral committee shall enter the voting results in the vote counting record of that constituency or the municipality.

6. If a polling district electoral committee receives the covering envelopes addressed to another polling district electoral committee, these envelopes shall not be opened. Instead, under the procedure laid down by the Central Electoral Commission, these envelopes shall be transferred to other electoral committees for counting the votes cast for the lists of candidates and/or the votes for candidates cast by the ballot papers located in these envelopes.