The Florida Senate

102.061  Duties of election board; counting; closing polls.--

(1)  At the close of the election at each precinct, the election board that conducted the election shall turn the ballot box, registration books, and other records over to the relieving board, when more than one board is conducting the election, which relieving board shall proceed to open the ballot box in the presence of the public desiring to witness the canvass and count the ballots without adjournment or interruption until the count is completed, except for the necessary interruption provided for in s. 102.012. The ballots shall first be counted, and, if the number of ballots exceeds the number of persons who voted, as may appear by the poll list kept by the clerk and by the stubs detached by the inspectors, the ballots shall be placed back into the box, and one of the inspectors shall publicly draw out and destroy unopened as many ballots as are equal to such excess. If two or more ballots are found folded together to present the appearance of a single ballot, they shall be laid aside until the count is completed, and, if, upon comparison of the count and the appearance of such ballots, a majority of the inspectors are of the opinion that the ballots were voted by one person, such ballots shall be destroyed.

(2)  In counting the ballots, the election board shall use either the tally call system of counting or a system whereby the ballots are opened and placed in piles according to the candidate voted for and then the number of ballots in each pile is counted. The ballots shall then be reshuffled and the process repeated until the total votes cast for each candidate for each office has been determined; and no other system of counting shall be used.

History.--s. 29, ch. 3879, 1889; RS 183; s. 60, ch. 4328, 1895; GS 241; RGS 285; CGL 341; s. 9, ch. 17898, 1937; s. 8, ch. 25384, 1949; s. 6, ch. 26870, 1951; s. 25, ch. 77-175; s. 44, ch. 79-400.

Note.--Former s. 99.42.