SECTIONS 15150-15154

15150.  For every election, the elections official shall conduct asemifinal official canvass by tabulating vote by mail and precinctballots and compiling the results. The semifinal official canvassshall commence immediately upon the close of the polls and shallcontinue without adjournment until all precincts are accounted for.15151.  (a) The elections official shall transmit the semifinalofficial results to the Secretary of State in the manner andaccording to the schedule prescribed by the Secretary of State priorto each election, for the following: (1) All candidates voted for statewide office. (2) All candidates voted for the following offices: (A) State Assembly. (B) State Senate. (C) Member of the United States House of Representatives. (D) Member of the State Board of Equalization. (E) Justice of the Court of Appeals. (3) All persons voted for at the presidential primary or forelectors of President and Vice President of the United States. (4) Statewide ballot measures. (b) The elections official shall transmit the results to theSecretary of State at intervals no greater than two hours, followingcommencement of the semifinal official canvass.15152.  Neither the elections official, any member of a precinctboard, nor any other person shall count any votes, either for aballot proposition or candidate, until the close of the polls in thatcounty. After that time, the ballots for all candidates and ballotpropositions voted upon solely within the county shall be counted andthe results of the balloting made public. However, the results forany candidate or ballot proposition also voted upon in another countyor counties shall not be made public until after all the polls inthat county and the other county or counties have closed. Thisparagraph applies regardless of whether the counting is done bymanual tabulation or by a vote tabulating device.15153.  During the semifinal official canvass, write-in votes shallbe counted in accordance with Article 3 (commencing with Section15340) of Chapter 4.15154.  (a) Any ballot that is not marked as provided by law or thatis marked or signed by the voter so that it can be identified byothers shall be rejected. The rejected ballots shall be placed in thepackage marked for voted ballots or in a separate container asdirected by the elections official. All rejected ballots shall havewritten thereon the cause for rejection and be signed by a majorityof processing board members who are assigned by the electionsofficial to process ballots. (b) The following ballot conditions shall not render a ballotinvalid: (1) Soiled or defaced. (2) Two or more impressions of the voting stamp or mark in onevoting square. (c) If a voter indicates, either by a combination of both markingand writing in, a choice of more names than there are candidates tobe elected or nominated for any office, or if for any reason thechoice of the voter is impossible to determine, the vote for thatoffice shall not be counted, but the remainder of the ballot, ifproperly marked, shall be counted. (d) This section applies to all ballots counted pursuant to thischapter and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 15300).