At any time between the Friday before the day of the election and the closing of the polls on an election day, absentee election judges within each county, selected by the administrators of the Department in that county, shall count absentee ballots at the Department’s offices in the county as follows:

(1) An absentee judge shall select the ballot envelopes in order of the election districts within the county;

(2) For each ballot envelope, the absentee judges shall ascertain whether a challenge has been made pursuant to this chapter;

(3) If a challenge has been made, the BALLOT ENVELOPE shall be marked as “CHALLENGED” and shall be set aside in a secure location for consideration at a later time as provided elsewhere in this title.

(4) If no challenge has been made, the absentee judges shall:

a. Open the ballot envelopes in such a manner as not to deface or destroy the statement thereon or the absentee ballot enclosed;

b. Remove the ballots from the ballot envelopes;

c. Determine whether the ballots have been properly completed and/or whether the elector’s intent can be determined pursuant to § 4972 of this title;

d. Tally any absentee votes that were written-in, or that must be counted by hand pursuant to § 4972 of this title, on absentee vote tally sheets for the election district with whose votes the absentee votes are to be counted; and

e. Record the proper notations of such votes in the election records for the election district to which they apply.

f. A ballot that a team determines cannot be read by the tabulating equipment or which the tabulating equipment rejects, shall be duplicated as provided for in § 5510A of this title.

(5) Once absentee votes have been recorded, an absentee judge shall deposit the voted ballots, rejected ballots, and any absentee vote tally sheet that may have been used, in a carrier envelope for the election district with whose votes the absentee votes are counted; provided, however, that each carrier envelope shall contain absentee ballots, rejected ballots, and tally sheets for no more than one election district and only one carrier envelope shall be filled at a time.

(6) Once a carrier envelope is filled, it shall be sealed by an absentee judge. The absentee judge shall sign the absentee judge’s name on each sealed carrier envelope, affirming that the absentee judge sealed the envelope and that the envelope contains ballots for the election district to which the envelope is assigned. Each sealed and signed carrier envelope shall be placed in a secure location and held there until such time as it is destroyed or moved for further legal process.

(7) The results of the absentee ballots shall not be extracted or reported before the polls have closed on the day of the election.

75 Del. Laws, c. 149, § 1; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § 1; 75 Del. Laws, c. 427, § 10; 78 Del. Laws, c. 304, § 8; 79 Del. Laws, c. 275, § 89; 81 Del. Laws, c. 106, § 5.