Section 31. Every city and town clerk shall send to the election officers at each polling place, before the opening of the polls on the day of an election or meeting at which the same are required to be used, the ballot box, blank forms and counting and other apparatus.

Where voting machines are used the city or town clerk on or before the day of election and before the hour fixed for the opening of the polls shall provide for the installation of the machines in the polling places. He shall send to the election officers before the polls are opened on election day blank forms and other necessary supplies, including voters' authority certificates, not less than one for each registered voter, in a form approved by the state secretary. Each voter's certificate shall be so prepared as to be capable of being inserted by the election officer after receiving it from the voter in a suitable container to be furnished by the board or officer responsible for the conduct of the election. The city or town clerk shall also forward to the election officers before the polls are opened an amount of official absent voting ballots to be used in the event all of the voting machines require repair or adjustment during the course of an election. All such ballots cast shall be marked ''cast due to machine failure'' in large type on the back of each ballot. Election officials at such voting place shall indicate on their official voting list those voters using said marked ballots.