Counting Your Ballots By Barb Agnew Burnet County Elections Administrator

Gather your Supplies Ballot cans Seals Ballot can keys Seal logs Ballot transfer bags (bright orange or red) Cardboard boxes Ballot Counting Checklist Transfer envelopes (for electronic ballot media) Tally sheets and pencils for paper ballot hand tally Prepare early!

Prepare your Team Early Voting Ballot Board for mail ballots Central Counting Station judges and clerks (may also be called Central Accumulation) Counting station manager and tabulation supervisor What time should each arrive? Will anyone need to come back after Election Day for provisional ballot work?

Ballot Counting Checklist _________ 1. Mail ballots _________ 2. Early voting – polling place #1 _________ 3. Early voting – polling place #2 _________ 4. Election Day – precinct 1 _________ 5. Election Day – precinct 2 _________ 6. Election Day – precinct 3 _________ 7. Election Day – precinct 4

Provisional Ballots – special care List Reconcile list with the affidavit envelopes (usually green) When releasing results to the press (or your candidates!) be sure to tell them how many provisional ballots were cast if these may affect the outcome of an election.

Reports and Reporting Questions Are all ballots accounted for? Do we have a tie? Again - do we have provisional ballots or late out-of- U.S. ballots that may affect the outcome of our election? Have write-in candidates been counted? Are the reports all in if coming from multiple counties? Do I understand the undervotes and how I calculate how many people voted if voters could vote for none, one, two, three or more candidates?

OPTIONAL – all about numbers Attending/conducting the logic and accuracy test of your ballot. Reading voting system reports. Receiving a daily list of those who voted early and on election day. Receiving a mail ballot roster. Reconciling the number of voters who signed in on the combination forms with the number of ballots cast and verifying this matches the results. Sorting Excel spreadsheet reports you get from the county election office.