The LRO's staff will deliver the ballot boxes from the polling station to the count venue.
The LRO’s staff check the ballot boxes as they arrive at the count venue.
Stage 2 – Verification
Ballot boxes are emptied onto tables and the empty boxes are shown to agents.
Staff count the ballot papers from each polling station.
Staff verify that the number of ballot papers matches the number of papers issued, as recorded on the Presiding Officers’ ballot paper accounts.
The verified ballot papers are shown to election and counting agents face up.
The LRO determines the reasons for any discrepancies and produces a final verified total.
The LRO produces a statement of the verification. Agents can view or copy this statement if they wish.
Where the election has been combined with another electoral event, all ballot boxes will be verified before any results are declared.
There may be a single ballot box for all elections or separate boxes for each. In any case, ballot papers will be sorted into the separate contests.
Any ballot paper found in the ‘wrong’ ballot box is still valid and will be moved to the correct box during verification.
If the count does not take place immediately following verification, the verified boxes will be stored securely. Candidates and agents can attach their seals to boxes if they wish.
Stage 3 – Counting of the votes
Staff sort ballot papers by candidate and count the number of votes cast for each candidate.
The local totals are then transmitted to the CARO for the calculation of the result.