Section 171Sec./Art. 171

Preliminaries to the Voting. -

(a) The board of inspectors shall meet at the polling place designated by the Commission at six thirty o'clock in the morning of election day and shall have the precinct book of voters containing all the approved applications for registration of voters pertaining to the precinct, the ballot box, the official ballots, sufficient pieces of indelible pencils for the use of the voters, the forms to be used during the day, and all other materials which may be necessary.

(b) Immediately thereafter, the board shall the open the ballot box, shall empty both of its compartments, exhibit them to all those present and being empty, shall lock its interior covers with three padlocks.

(c) The chairman shall forthwith show to the public and the watchers present the package of official ballots received from the city, municipal or municipal district treasurer duly wrapped and sealed and the number of pads, the serial numbers and the type forms of the ballots in each pad appearing on the cover, and shall subsequently break the wrapping and the seal. The board shall enter in the minutes the fact that the package was shown to the public with its wrapping and corresponding seal intact and/or if they find that the wrapping and seal are broken, such fact must be stated in the minutes as well as the number of pads and the serial numbers of ballots that they find in the package.

(d) The chairman and two party members of the board shall retain in their possession their respective keys to the padlocks during the voting.

(e) The box shall remain locked until the voting is finished and the counting begins. However, if it should become necessary to make room for more ballots, the board may open the box in the presence of the whole board and the watchers, and the chairman shall press down with his hands the ballots contained therein without removing any of them, after which the board shall close the box and lock it with its three padlocks as herein before provided.