§11-46-115. Votes not to be counted until polls closed; disposition of poll lists and affidavits; counting of ballots.

(a) No votes shall be counted until the polls are closed.

(b) Immediately after the polls are closed at elections where paper ballots are used, the poll list signed by the voters and the poll list made by one of the clerks shall be sealed in separate envelopes and labelled before the inspectors begin to count the votes, and one copy of each affidavit made by a challenged voter and one copy of each affidavit identifying a challenged voter shall be sealed in a package by the inspectors, and the other copy of each of such affidavits shall be sealed in a package and forwarded to the district attorney of the county, who shall lay them before the next grand jury sitting for the county.

(c) As soon as this is done the ballots cast shall be counted in the following manner: The returning officer or one of the inspectors must take the ballots, one by one, from the box in which they were deposited, at the same time reading aloud the name of each person receiving a vote and the office for which he received such vote, and they must separately keep a calculation of the number of votes each person receives and for what office he receives them. If the elector has marked more names than there are persons to be elected to an office or if for any reason it is impossible to determine the elector's choice for any office to be filled, his ballot shall not be counted for such office, but this shall not vitiate the ballot so far as properly marked nor shall any ballot be rejected for any technical error which does not make it impossible to determine the elector's choice.

(Acts 1961, No. 664, p. 868, §25.)