system($check . $elt);
if (1 == $? >> 8) {
  chomp $elt;
  print blah blah;
}

##</code><code>##

my $count;
foreach $i (@$elt) {      # @$elt is an abbreviation of @{$elt} -- see perlreftut
  system($check . $i);    # using $i instead of $elt
  if (1 == $? >> 8) {
    chomp $i;
    print blah blah;      # use $i here
    $count++;
  }
}
## use $count here