Председатель подсчитал бюллетени.

Подсчитал is:

• past tense
• masculine singular
• perfective

It comes from the infinitive подсчитать.

So this form tells you that:

• the action happened in the past,
• the subject is grammatically masculine and singular,
• the counting is viewed as completed: the chairperson finished counting the ballots.

Compare:

• подсчитал = he counted / has counted / finished counting
• подсчитала = she counted
• подсчитали = they counted

In Russian, a noun ending in -ь is not always feminine. Some nouns ending in -ь are masculine.

Председатель is one of those masculine nouns. Its dictionary form is председатель, and in this sentence it is in the nominative singular, functioning as the subject.

So the ending -ь does not automatically mean feminine. You just have to learn the gender of each noun.

Yes. Председатель is a job title / role noun that can refer to either a man or a woman.

In modern Russian, if the person is a woman, you will often hear feminine agreement in the past tense:

• Председатель подсчитала бюллетени.

That means the noun stays председатель, but the verb shows the person is female.

In your sentence, подсчитал is masculine, so it most naturally suggests a male chairperson, or masculine agreement in a formal style.

Here бюллетени is in the accusative plural, because it is the direct object of the verb подсчитал.

The basic form is:

• singular: бюллетень
• plural: бюллетени

Because бюллетень is an inanimate noun, its accusative plural looks the same as its nominative plural:

• nominative plural: бюллетени
• accusative plural: бюллетени

So in this sentence, the form looks like nominative plural, but its role is accusative plural.

Russian has no articles like a or the.

So:

• Председатель can mean the chairperson or sometimes just a chairperson
• бюллетени can mean the ballots or ballots

Which one sounds natural in English depends on context. Russian usually leaves that unstated unless the context makes it clear.

Because подсчитать means something like count up, tally, or finish counting.

It focuses on the result: the counting was completed.

By contrast:

• считал usually means was counting or just counted in a more general sense
• подсчитывал is the imperfective partner of подсчитать and focuses more on the process or repeated action

So:

• Председатель подсчитал бюллетени = the chairperson counted up / finished counting the ballots
• Председатель подсчитывал бюллетени = the chairperson was counting the ballots

Yes. Russian word order is more flexible than English because case endings show who is doing what.

The neutral order here is:

• Председатель подсчитал бюллетени.

But you could also say:

• Бюллетени подсчитал председатель.

That still means The chairperson counted the ballots, but it changes the emphasis. This version highlights who counted them, almost like It was the chairperson who counted the ballots.

So the basic meaning stays the same, but the focus changes.

The stressed forms are:

• председа́тель
• подсчита́л
• бюллете́ни

So the whole sentence is:

• Председа́тель подсчита́л бюллете́ни.

A rough pronunciation guide:

• председа́тель ≈ preet-sye-DA-tyel
• подсчита́л ≈ pat-shi-TAL
• бюллете́ни ≈ byoo-lye-TYE-nee

As always, the exact Russian sounds are not the same as English ones, but the stress is very important.

It is a perfectly complete sentence.

Russian often allows very short complete sentences when the subject, verb, and object are clear. Here you have everything you need:

• Председатель = subject
• подсчитал = verb
• бюллетени = object

So this is a normal, natural complete sentence meaning that the chairperson counted the ballots.