Sec. 31. (a) Each county election board shall preserve the unused ballots that are left over after supplying the precincts, as prescribed by section 11 of this chapter. The ballots shall be preserved until expiration of the time for filing a contest or recount petition under IC 3-12.
(b) The board shall then destroy all of the ballots, except for one (1) regular ballot and one (1) provisional ballot.