Section 100, The Public Elections Act, 2012

(1) The Returning Officer at a polling station shall, at theconclusion of the time appointed for voting under subsection (1) of section 73– (a) close the polling station and cease to receive any votes and shall as soon as is practicable thereafter proceed to open each ballot box, take out the ballot papers and count them; (b), subject to sections 85 and 86, record the number of valid ballot papers; but, the ballots cast for each candidate shall be kept separate from the ballots of any other candidate.