4. a. An early vote cast in an election, as provided for in this act, P.L.2021, c.40 (C. 19:15A-1 et al.), shall not be canvassed prior to the closing of the polls on the day of an election.

Every provisional ballot voted in each such election and determined by a county board to be valid shall be counted and shall be part of the official tally of the results of the election.

b. Each early vote cast, canvassed, and tallied in an election under subsection a. of this section shall be reported in the results for the election district in which the voter resides. The provisions of this subsection shall not be interpreted to change the manner in which each provisional ballot cast, canvassed, and tallied in each election is reported as part of the official tally of the results of the election in a manner that preserves the privacy of the voter’s vote. Whenever the reporting requirement of this subsection would cause a voter’s privacy to be violated, the election results shall be reported in a manner that maintains the privacy of the vote, provided that the election results posted on the respective websites shall contain a disclosure stating that the results reported for some individual districts reflect measures to protect the privacy of the vote while the general tally accurately reflects the results, and provided further that the reports for those individual districts shall not be subject to disclosure under the provisions of P.L.1963, c.73 (C. 47:1A-1 et seq.), commonly known as the open public records act.

L.2021, c.40, s.4; amended 2022, c.67, s.4.