§3-5-17. Canvassing and certifying returns; recount procedures.

The commissioners of the county commission, sitting as a board of canvassers, shall convene at the courthouse of the county on the fifth day following any primary election, which is not a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, and shall proceed to canvass the returns of the election. The procedures prescribed in section nine, article six, of this chapter relating to canvass of general election returns, shall, where adaptable, be applied in the canvass of the primary election returns. The board shall proceed to ascertain the result of the election in the county and district and election precincts and cause to be prepared and recorded in the primary election precinct record book a table or tables which show, as to each candidate of each political party for each office, the number of votes cast for him or her at each precinct and the total number cast in the entire county. The board shall then make up and enter in said record book a certificate for each political party showing, as to each candidate for each political party for each office, the total number of votes, in words and figures, cast for him or her in the entire county and the number of votes received by all the candidates of such party in such district in the following form:

The board of canvassers of the county of ................ of West Virginia, having carefully and impartially examined the returns of the primary election held in said county on the ....... day of ..........., 19...., do hereby certify that in said county or district, at said election, on the official ballot of the .................. party for the office of ..............., A. B. received ............ (......) votes; C. D. received .............. (......) votes.

And so on for each office for each political party according to the truth. When the certificates are all entered, the report shall be signed by the members of the board or by a majority of the board. Such members shall also sign separate certificates of the result of the election, within the county, for each of the offices to be filled by each political party as provided by the following section.

The provisions of article six of this chapter, relating to the recount of votes in general elections, shall, to the extent applicable, be operative in primary and other elections conducted under provisions of this article.