1.    At any time beginning three business days before election day and ending when the polls close on election day, the election clerks and board members of the relevant polling place first shall compare the signature on the application for an absent voter’s ballot with the signature on the voter’s affidavit provided for in section 16.1-07-08 to ensure the signatures correspond. If the applicant is then a duly qualified elector of the precinct and has not voted at the election, an election clerk or board member shall open the absent voter’s envelope in a manner as not to destroy the affidavit on the envelope. The election clerk or board member shall take out the secrecy envelope with the ballot inside without unfolding the ballot, or permitting the ballot to be opened or examined, and indicate in the pollbook of the election the elector has voted. The election board members not participating in the comparing of signatures and entering voters into the pollbook shall remove the ballot from the secrecy envelope, unfold and initial the ballot, and deposit the ballot in the proper ballot box for tabulation. The votes from the ballots may not be tallied and the tabulation reports may not be generated until the polls have closed on election day.

2.    If the affidavit on the outer envelope of a returned absentee ballot is found to be insufficient, or the signatures on the application and affidavit do not correspond, or the applicant is not then a duly qualified elector of the precinct, the vote may not be allowed, and without opening the absent voter’s envelope, the election inspector or election judge shall mark across the face of the ballot “rejected as defective” or “rejected as not an elector”, as the case may be. The ballots rejected under this subsection then are turned over to the county canvassing board for final determination of eligibility. The subsequent death of an absentee voter after voting by absentee ballot is not grounds for rejecting the ballot.