The polling station commission shall write vote-counting minutes in two original copies. The vote-counting minutes shall consist of two parts:
1) the preliminary vote counting (hereinafter — first part of the vote-counting minutes);
2) tallying of final results (hereinafter — second part of the vote-counting minutes).
(2) Before opening the ballot boxes, the polling station commission shall make an entry in the vote-counting minutes about the received, used and unused ballot envelopes and the number of voters at the polling station and off-site locations. The unused stamped envelopes shall be invalidated.
(3) After the information specified in Paragraph 2 of this Article has been recorded in the first part of the vote-counting minutes and after the unused election materials and envelopes have been packaged, the ballot boxes shall be opened. The ballot boxes shall be opened one at a time, and the ballot envelopes shall be counted.
(4) The unopened ballot envelopes removed from each ballot box shall be sorted as valid and invalid envelopes.
(5) The envelopes shall be deemed invalid if they are torn, if they do not bear a stamp of the given polling station or if they do not bear the name of the given elections and the number of the convocation of the Saeima to be elected.
(6) The invalid envelopes shall be counted and packaged unopened, and the number of invalid ballot envelopes shall be indicated on the package. The total number of invalid ballot envelopes shall be recorded in the minutes of the voting process.
(7) The number of valid ballot envelopes removed from each ballot box must be equal to or less than the number of voters on the voters’ list.
(8) If the ballot box contains ballot papers that have not been inserted into ballot envelopes, they should be invalidated and packaged in accordance with the procedure set by the Central Election Commission.
