Section 3-177-801 - Paper ballot voting system; counting ballots(a) All counting shall be conducted by the election officials in accordance with HRS § 16-25.(b) Insofar as the limits of the room in which the voting takes place reasonably allow, no person shall be prevented from attending the counting of the ballots on election day, unless it is necessary to restrict access to preserve the peace.(c) All tallying shall be done on the official tally sheet, and no one but. an. election official shall be permitted to assist in calling, tallying, or performing any other work involved in counting the votes cast. The election officials shall also tally the number of: (1) Questionable ballots, as defined- in HRS § 16-26, which shall be placed in an envelope provided for that purpose; and(2) Totally blank ballots.(d) When tallying is completed, an election official, in the presence of at least one other election official not of the same political party, shall circle the last block containing the last tally mark with a red pen. (1) Immediately to the right of the circled block, an election official shall record the total number of tally marks including those in that block, and the election official and the other election officials shall affix their initials.(2) The total count shown on the tally sheet shall be recorded on the results of votes cast form.(3) The election officials shall then complete and sign the certification on the tally sheet and the results of votes cast form.(e) When the election officials have ascertained the number of votes given for each candidate and ballot question, they shall make public declaration of the whole number of votes cast, the names of the persons voted for, the ballot questions, and the number of votes for each person and ballot question.[Eff JUL 26 2020] (Auth: HRS § 11-4) (Imp: HRS §§ 11-152, 11-153, 11-154, 16-24 through 16-29)