Absent voters' ballots shall be in all respects like other ballots. Not less than forty-five days prior to the date on which any primary, general or special election is to be held, the Clerk shall estimate and determine the number of absent voters' ballots of all kinds which will be required in their respective counties for any such election. The ballots for the election of all officers, or the ratification, acceptance or rejection of any measure, proposition or other public question to be voted on by the voters, shall be prepared and printed under the direction of the board of ballot commissioners constituted as provided in West Virginia Code Article 3-1, as amended. The ballot commissioners shall prepare and have printed, in such number as they shall determine, .such absent voters' ballots as are to be printed under their directions as hereinbefore provided, and such ballots shall be delivered to the Clerk not less than thirty days prior to the day of the election at which they are used. Before any ballot is mailed or delivered the Clerk shall affix his official seal and he and the other members of the board of ballot commissioners shall place their signatures near the lower left-hand corner on the back thereof. An absent voter's ballot not containing such seal and signatures shall be invalid and shall be subject to challenge by any election commissioner or poll clerk.
Notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, if the time limits set forth therein cannot be adhered to because the procedures of a given election prevent the preparation of ballots until some time after than the delivery date set forth above, the ballots shall be prepared and delivered as soon as is reasonably possible under the circumstances.
The clerk shall be primarily responsible for the preparation, mailing, receiving, delivering and otherwise handling of all absent voters' ballots. He shall keep such record, as may be prescribed by the Secretary of State, of all ballots so delivered for the purpose of absentee voting, as well as all ballots, if any, marked before him, and shall deliver to the commissioner of election to whom the ballots for the precinct are delivered and at the time of the delivery of such ballots a certificate stating the number of ballots delivered or mailed to absent voters, and those marked before him, if any, and the names of the voters to whom such ballots have been delivered or mailed, or by whom they have been marked, if marked before him.
(Ord. 85-13. Passed 4-18-85.)