Section 18. A city or town clerk or an election commissioner who fails to make a record of votes cast at an election and to make and transmit copies of any such record, as required by chapter fifty-four, shall be punished by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars; but if a copy of the records is deposited in the post office within the time fixed for transmission or delivery, postpaid and properly addressed, it shall be a bar to any complaint for delinquency.