Section 168.798b - Electronic tabulating equipment; unofficial and official returns; manual count; accumulation report(1) The county clerk may conduct an unofficial count in order to provide early unofficial returns to the public. Upon completion of the count, the official returns shall be open to the public. The return of the electronic tabulating equipment, to which have been added the write-in and absentee votes if necessary, shall constitute, after being duly certified, the official return of each precinct or election district. If it becomes impracticable to count all or a part of the ballots with tabulating equipment, the clerk may direct that they be counted manually, following as far as practicable the provisions governing the counting of paper ballots. An accumulation report of unofficial results using the tabulated votes available after 8 p.m. on election day must be compiled and published using a format that clearly indicates all of the following: (a) The election day precinct results.(b) The corresponding absent voter ballot counting board results.(c) The corresponding early voting results.(d) The sum of subdivisions (a), (b), and (c) for each precinct and contest.(2) For a city or township with 250 or more precincts using common ballot forms instead of the election day precinct format in the absent voter counting boards and early voting sites, the accumulation report will not report results from absent voter counting boards or early voting sites as corresponding to election day precincts. Accumulation reports in each city or township described in this subsection must report the results for each election day precinct and separately report the results of each absent voter counting board and the corresponding early voting results. Each common ballot form may constitute at least 1 separate absent voter counting board and early voting precinct.Amended by 2023, Act 81,s 33, eff. 2/13/2024.Add. 1967, Act 155, Imd. Eff. 6/30/1967 ;--Am. 1990, Act 109, Imd. Eff. 6/18/1990.