The county elections official on or after the 29th day before the election shall mail a ballot, an identification envelope, and a stamped and addressed return envelope to each cottongrower on the register submitted by the agricultural commissioner. The ballot shall indicate the number of votes and the number shall be written on the ballot by the clerk. Each cottongrower appearing on the register shall be entitled to one vote for each acre of cotton for which a valid permit to grow cotton is possessed for each office to be filled, or proposition to be voted upon, at that election. Cumulative voting is not authorized.

The ballot shall be printed in substantially the following form:

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NOTICE OF INCOMPLETE TEXT: The Cotton Pest Abatement District official ballot appears in the hard-copy publication of the chaptered bill. See Sec. 25, Chapter 221, Statutes of 2002 (p. 946).

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The ballot shall be placed in the identification envelope by the voter after the voter has indicated his or her choices. The identification envelope shall be sealed and signed by the voter. The identification envelope shall be returned to the county elections official in the sealed return envelope.

Ballots in order to be counted shall be received by the elections official not later than 12 o’clock noon of the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March and the return envelopes containing the ballots shall not be opened until that time. The elections official shall then open the return envelopes and deposit the ballot in its unopened envelope in a ballot box. After deposit of all identification envelopes received, the elections official shall open the ballot box and count the votes cast and certify the results of the election.

The returns of the election shall be reported to the board of directors of the district who shall meet on the Monday following the election and canvass the returns.

(Amended by Stats. 2002, Ch. 221, Sec. 25. Effective January 1, 2003. Note: See published chaptered bill for complete section text. The Cotton Pest Abatement District official ballot appeared on page 13 of Ch. 221, and now appears on page 946 in Vol. 1 of the 2002 Statutes publication.)