At any meeting for the choice of town officers in a town not using official ballots, no ballots shall be received by the moderator unless presented for deposit in the ballot box, open and unfolded, by the voter in person, and so that the moderator can know that only one ballot is presented. No moderator or other election officer shall, before the polls are closed, read, examine, or permit to be read or examined, the names contained upon any ballot.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 41, § 8