231Counting of votes

#### 231 Counting of votes 231 Counting of votes > > (1) As soon as practicable after the date fixed for the closing of the ballot, the returning officer must, in the presence of scrutineers that may be appointed by the relevant authority conducting the ballot, open the ballot box and deal with the contents in accordance with this section. > > > (2) The returning officer must— > > > > > (a) examine the outer envelopes, and > > > > > (b) if a duplicate outer envelope has been issued and the original outer envelope is received, reject the original envelope and mark it “rejected”, and > > > > > (c) mark the owner’s name on the roll by drawing a line through the name and the lots of land to which the envelope relates, and > > > > > (d) remove the inner envelopes from the outer envelopes, and > > > > > (e) when all the inner envelopes have been dealt with in the above method, open all unrejected inner envelopes and take the ballot papers from them. > > > (3) The ballot papers must be scrutinised by the returning officer who must count as informal a ballot paper that— > > > > > (a) is not duly initialled by the returning officer or appointed assistant or does not bear a mark that identifies it as a genuine ballot paper, or > > > > > (b) is so imperfectly completed that the intention of the voter cannot be ascertained by the returning officer, or > > > > > (c) has not been completed in the method specified in the ballot paper itself. > > > (4) If a lot of land is owned by a group of co-owners, the votes are to be counted as follows— > > > > > (a) if all the co-owners or a majority of the co-owners of the lot cast a formal vote in favour of the development plan, the vote is taken to be 1 formal vote consenting to the development plan for the lot, > > > > > (b) otherwise—the vote is taken not to be a formal vote in favour of consent to the development plan for the lot.