(a) In this title the following words have the meanings indicated.
(b) “Board of canvassers” means the local board of elections in a county after the local board organizes itself for the purpose of canvassing the vote after an election in that county.
(c) (1) “Canvass” means the entire process of vote tallying, vote tabulation, and vote verification or audit, culminating in the production and certification of the official election results.
(2) For absentee ballots, the “canvass” includes the opening of any envelope accompanying an absentee ballot and the assembly and review of absentee ballots in preparation for vote tallying.
(3) For provisional ballots, the “canvass” includes the review of the provisional ballot applications described in § 11–303 of this title and the assembly and review of provisional ballots in preparation for vote tallying.
(4) For votes cast during early voting, the “canvass” includes the tabulation of votes cast during early voting.
(5) For votes cast in a special election conducted by mail under Title 9, Subtitle 5 of this article, the “canvass” includes:
(i) the opening of any envelope accompanying a vote–by–mail ballot and the assembly and review of vote–by–mail ballots in preparation for vote tabulation; and
(ii) the tabulation of vote–by–mail ballots.
(d) “Counting center” means one or more central locations designated by a local board to conduct the canvass.
(e) “Removable data storage device” means a read–only memory device that is programmed to record votes as they are cast on an electronic voting system.
(f) (1) “Unofficial returns” means a vote tabulation reported on election night after the polls close.
(2) “Unofficial returns” does not include the absentee ballot count or the provisional ballot count.
(g) “Vote tabulation” or “vote counting” means the aggregation of the votes cast by individual voters to produce vote totals at any level.
(h) “Vote tallying” means the recording of votes cast by individual voters on a certified voting system whether done by:
(1) a mechanical lever voting machine;
(2) an electronic voting device; or
(3) making marks manually on a tally sheet.