# Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1962, Paragraph 47: First stage


(1) The returning officer shall sort the ballot papers into parcels according to the candidates for whom first preference votes are given.
(2) The returning officer shall then count the number of first preference votes given on ballot papers for each candidate and shall record those numbers.
(3) The returning officer shall also ascertain and record the number of valid ballot papers.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/apni/1962/14/schedule/5/paragraph/47 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/electoral-law-act-northern-ireland-1962/schedule-5/paragraph-47
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.