69Opening declaration envelopes

69 Opening declaration envelopes

(1) The election manager must ensure that the following things are done at each counting place by election officials in the presence of any scrutineer who is present—

(a) remove the declaration flaps from the declaration envelopes that have not been disallowed;

(b) place the removed declaration flaps in a secure receptacle or location;

(c) open the declaration envelopes and remove the ballot-papers contained in them.

(2) An election official must not open a declaration envelope under subregulation (1)(c) until the declaration flap on the envelope has been removed and placed in a secure receptacle or location.

(3) An election official must disallow all the ballot‑papers within the same declaration envelope and mark them in a manner that indicates why the ballot-papers have been disallowed if the declaration envelope contains—

(a) more than one ballot-paper for the same election; or

(b) ballot-papers for more than one ward or election.

(4) If a declaration envelope contains a ballot-paper for an election other than the election for which the declaration envelope was issued, an election official must disallow the ballot-paper and mark it in a manner that indicates why the ballot-paper has been disallowed.

Division 3—Manual counting of votes