(1) Upon receiving absentee ballots and upon breaking the seals and opening the ballot containers from the precincts, all voting positions on voted ballots shall be manually inspected on both sides of the ballot to determine whether the ballot is readable by the vote tabulating system. This manual inspection is a required part of processing ballots.
(2) The inspection of ballots tabulated at the poll site is not required provided that the poll site ballot programming provisions of RCW
29A.44.340 are in effect.
(3) If the manual inspection process detects any physically damaged ballots, unreadable ballots which might not be correctly counted by the tabulating equipment, or marks that differ from those specified in the voting instructions, the county auditor shall refer such ballots to the county canvassing board to be counted according to the statewide standards on what is a vote, as provided in WAC
434-261-086. The county canvassing board shall make the final determination of voter intent for ballots not addressed in the statewide standards on what is a vote.
(4) The county canvassing board may delegate duplication of the ballots consistent with RCW
29A.60.140.
[Statutory Authority: RCW 29A.04.611. 07-12-032, § 434-261-070, filed 5/30/07, effective 6/30/07; 06-11-042, § 434-261-070, filed 5/10/06, effective 6/10/06; 05-17-145, § 434-261-070, filed 8/19/05, effective 9/19/05. Statutory Authority: RCW 29A.04.610. 04-15-089, § 434-261-070, filed 7/16/04, effective 8/16/04. Statutory Authority: RCW 29.04.210, 29.36.150. 02-07-029, § 434-261-070, filed 3/12/02, effective 4/12/02. Statutory Authority: RCW 29.04.080, 29.04.210, 29.36.150 and 29.79.200. 97-21-045, § 434-261-070, filed 10/13/97, effective 11/13/97.]