(a) As soon as all the ballots have been properly accounted for, and those outside the ballot box, as well as the “Voting Check List,” numbered lists of voters and district register sealed, the election officers shall forthwith open the ballot box, and take therefrom all ballots therein, and at primaries, separate the same according to the party to which they belong. The ballots shall then be counted one by one, and a record made of the total number, and at primaries of the total number cast for each party. Then the judge, under the scrutiny of the minority inspector, or the minority inspector, under the scrutiny of the judge, in the presence of the other officers, clerks, and of the overseers, if any, and within the hearing and sight of the watchers outside the enclosed space, shall read aloud the names of the candidates marked or inserted upon each ballot (at primaries the ballots of each party being read in sequence), together with the office for which the person named is a candidate, and the answers contained on the ballots to the questions submitted, if any, and the majority inspector and clerks shall carefully enter each vote as read, and keep account of the same in ink in triplicate tally papers (triplicate tally papers for each party at primaries) to be provided by the county board of elections for that purpose, all three of which shall be made at the same time. All ballots, after being removed from the box, shall be kept within the unobstructed view of all persons in the voting room until replaced in the box. No person while handling the ballots shall have in his hand any pencil, pen, stamp or other means of marking or spoiling any ballot. The election officers shall forthwith proceed to canvass and compute the votes cast, and shall not adjourn or postpone the canvass or computation until it shall have been fully completed.

(b) When the vote cast for the different persons named upon the ballots and upon the questions, if any, appearing thereon, shall have been fully recorded in the tally papers and counted, the election officers shall duly certify to the number of votes cast for each person (upon the respective party tickets at primaries), and shall prepare in ink two (2) general returns, showing, in addition to the entries made thereon as aforesaid, the total number of ballots received from the county board (the total of each party at primaries), the number of ballots cast (the number of each party at primaries), the number of ballots (of each party at primaries) declared void, and the number of ballots spoiled and cancelled, and any blank ballots cast, as well as the votes cast for each candidate. At elections, the number of votes cast for each candidate by each political party or political body of which such candidate is a nominee shall be separately stated. In an immediate column to the left thereto, the number of votes received by each candidate upon all ballots shall be entered, such column to be of convenient width and shall be headed “number of votes received.” The total number of votes received by each candidate shall be entered in a column on the extreme right-hand side of the return sheets, which column shall be of convenient width and shall be headed “total number of votes.”

Nothing in this section contained shall be construed to authorize or permit the canvassing, counting or tallying ballots with any less degree of strictness than otherwise required by law.

(c) In returning any votes cast for any person whose name is not printed on the ballot, the election officers shall record any such names exactly as they were written or stamped upon the ballot. In districts in which paper ballots or ballot cards are electronically tabulated, stickers or labels may not be used to mark ballots. A vote cast by means of a sticker or label affixed to a ballot or ballot card shall be void and may not be counted.