Offences in respect of ballot papers

(1) Every person who– (a) forges or counterfeits, or fraudulently defaces, or fraudulently destroys, any nomination paper, or delivers to the presiding officer any nomination paper, knowing the same to be forged; (b) forges or counterfeits, or fraudulently defaces, or destroys, any ballot paper or the official mark on any ballot paper; (c) without due authority, supplies a ballot paper to any person; or REVISED EDITION 2018 34 (d) fraudulently puts into any ballot box any paper other than the ballot paper which he is authorised by law to put in; (e) fraudulently takes out of a polling station any ballot paper; or (f) without due authority destroys, takes, opens, or otherwise interferes with any ballot box or packet of ballot papers then in use for the purpose of any election, commits a misdemeanour, and is liable, if he is a presiding officer or clerk employed at the polling station, to a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding five years, and, if he is any other person, to a fine, on summary conviction, not exceeding one thousand dollars, or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding three years. (2) In any indictment or other prosecution for an offence in relation to the nomination papers, ballot boxes, ballot papers, and marking instruments at an election, the property in such papers, boxes, and instruments may be stated to be in the returning officer at such election.