North Dakota Century Code Title 16.1. Elections § 16.1-15-09. Voting systems--Returns

1. Election officers shall generate reports of votes cast and counted by voting systems for all candidates and for any measures or questions as provided by law or rule.

2. Within the ability of a tabulation device to accurately do so, all votes must be counted by the machine. After the election results have been accumulated centrally in the county auditor's office, if the number or percentage of write-in votes for an office meet the criteria in section 16.1-15-01.1, the county canvassing board shall review and approve the canvass of the votes for the write-in names for that office conducted by the county auditor's office to determine final election results.

3. The county auditor shall designate the public places where absentee and mail ballots must be delivered and counted in the presence of the election inspector and at least two election judges.

4. Each voting system must generate a printed record at the beginning of the system's operation which verifies the tabulating elements for each candidate position and each question and the public counter are all set at zero. The voting system also must be equipped with an element that generates, at the end of the system's operation, a printed record of the total number of voters whose ballots have been tabulated, the total number of votes cast for each candidate on the ballot, and the total number of votes cast for or against any measure appearing on the ballot. The election inspector and election judges shall certify both printed records.

5. If any ballot is damaged or defective so the ballot cannot be counted properly by the voting system, a true duplicate copy must be made by election officials of opposed interests and substituted for the damaged or defective ballot. All duplicate ballots must be labeled duplicate clearly, must bear a serial number that must be recorded on the damaged or defective ballot, and must be wrapped and delivered with other ballots to the county recorder.