The election board shall generate at least one canvass report from the electronic voting system. The ballots may not be sealed, nor may the canvass report be signed, by the election board or poll clerk until the counts in the poll clerks’ books and in the canvass report shows the same totals for ballots cast.

In the case of the absentee ballot precinct as authorized in section 16.1-07-12.1, early voting precincts as authorized in section 16.1-07-15, and mail ballot precinct as authorized in section 16.1-11.1-06, if the work of the election board is completed prior to close of the polls on election day, the election board shall create and sign a statement consisting of a reconciliation of the number of voters recorded in the pollbook and the number of ballots processed through the tabulators. The voting system must be secured in a manner prescribed by the county auditor that will protect the system and ballots from tampering. Prior to generating the canvass report from one of these three types of precincts, an election judge representing each political party, or two election judges in the case of an election that does not include a political party contest, shall verify that the system and ballots remain secure and the statement created by the election board is still accurate.