Ballot stuffing is the act of one person submitting multiple ballots during a vote in which only one ballot per person is permitted. In a government election, this is a form of electoral fraud. A ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters. ... The Elections and Parties Series Democracy Representative democracy History of democracy Referenda Liberal democracy Representation Voting Voting systems Ideology Elections Elections by country Elections by calender Electoral systems Politics Politics by country Political campaigns Political science Political philosophy Related topics Political parties Parties by country Parties by name Parties by... The Elections and Parties Series Democracy Representative democracy History of democracy Referenda Liberal democracy Representation Voting Voting systems Ideology Elections Elections by country Elections by calender Electoral systems Politics Politics by country Political campaigns Political science Political philosophy Related topics Political parties Parties by country Parties by name Parties by... Electoral fraud is the deliberate interference with the process of an election. ...
Ballot-stuffing depends a great deal on how good the record-keeping is. Most election systems match the number of persons showing up to vote with the number of ballots cast, prepare the forms so that they are difficult to fake, and so on. The techniques of ballot-stuffing therefore require a genuine registered voter.
Ballot-stuffing can be accomplished in a number of ways. Often, a ballot-stuffer will cast votes on the behalf of people who did not show up to the polls; sometimes, votes will even be cast by those who are long dead. In earlier societies with little paperwork, dead people were kept "alive" on paper for the purpose of ballot-stuffing. The family of the deceased often helped along, either to assist their party or for money. Ballot-stuffing is a hallmark of machine politics. This article is about the system of organization called a political machine. ...
That way, the number of papers found in the ballot box at the end of the election can be reconciled with the number of papers issued during the poll and the number of papers stocked before the poll began.
After the count, all ballot papers and their counterfoils have to be sealed in the Supreme Court vault for 6 months, after which all the ballot papers and other election documents are destroyed.
The ballot paper number is there to protect the integrity of the democratic process, and not to undermine the secrecy of the vote.
The accounting for ballots typically involves reconciling the number of ballots found in the ballot box at the end of the election with the number issued to voters during the voting period and the number stocked at the polling place at the beginning of the election.
Ballot boxes should not be designed so that the ballots stack neatly and in the order they were deposited, and when the ballot box is opened for counting, its contents should be dumped into a disorderly pile on the counting table and not handled in neat stacks that preserve their order.
When ballot boxes are sealed prior to an election at a central location, and when ballots are counted centrally after the polls close, when ballots are moved to storage awaiting a request for recount, and when ballots are moved from storage to the site of the recount, it is essential that tampering be prevented.