Paragraph 52 Checking of rejected ballot paper lists

Where the counting officer receives a valid security statement without the ballot paper to which it relates, or in the case of combined polls one or both of the ballot papers, he may, at any time prior to the close of the poll, check the list kept under rule 51(1) to see whether the ballot number of a ballot paper is the same as the ballot number on a security statement entered in that list.

Where the counting officer receives a ballot paper without the security statement to which it relates, he may, at any time prior to the close of the poll, check the list kept under rule 51(2) to see whether the ballot number of that ballot paper is entered in that list.

The counting officer shall conduct the checks referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2) at the end of each occasion on which covering envelopes are opened and as soon as practicable after the close of the poll.

Where the ballot number in the list matches that number on a valid security statement or, as the case may be, the ballot paper, the counting officer shall retrieve that security statement or paper.

The counting officer shall then take the appropriate steps as though any document earlier marked “provisionally rejected” had not been so marked and shall amend the document accordingly.