There exist various methods through which the ballots cast at an election may be counted, prior to applying a voting system to obtain one or more winners. A ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters. ... An election is a decision making process whereby people vote for preferred political candidates or parties to act as representatives in government. ... A voting system is a process that allows a group of people to express their desires about a number of options, and selects one or more of those options as the winner based on the votes. ...
Manual counting: In some jurisdictions, the ballots are counted manually, either by permanent or temporary state employees. Counting may be supervised by scrutineers, appointed by the candidates.
Positive points: When the possible choices on the ballot are simple (a yes/no answer to a referendum, a simple choice in a variety of candidates or lists), the counting is simple and fast.
There is no need to move the ballots between the polling station and a counting station; votes may be counted on the spot, thus reducing the risk of losses and tampering.
It is sufficient to have a limited number of volunteers per voting precinct, and the system scales up well to any size of consistuency or country.
The process may be understood and witnessed by any voter.
If a result is challenged, paper ballots can be readily recounted.
Negative points: This method is less efficient when the choices on the ballot are complex (possibility of removing names from a list etc...).
It scales up badly when several questions are asked on the same ballot; however, a large ballot can surely always be split onto several sub-ballots, each on a different coloured paper.
In Australia, even the ballot boxes and polling booths are made of cardboard, which can be pulped after use, leaving nothing to store between elections.
Electromechanical counting: Ballots, typically punch cards, are collected and fed into a voting machine which counts them.
Positive points: The system scales well with any number of simultaneous votes.
Negative points: Those machines are costly and difficult to maintain and store; as a consequence, there may be fewer machines than polling stations, requiring the movement of ballots from polling stations to counting offices.
This may result in losses, or may allow tampering.
The number of polling stations may have to be reduced, thus making it difficult for voters to reach them because of transportation constraints.
The vote counts are unreliable and such machines were responsible for the fiasco of the election of the Floridan electors in the U.S. presidential election of 2000.
Some kinds of machine leave no "Paper trail" and do not allow for any "recount".
Optical scan counting: Voters mark their choices on a paper ballot and feed the ballot into a voting machine which counts the votes, before dropping the ballot into a locked box.
Positive points:
The system scales well with any number of simultaneous votes.
Scales well when several questions are asked on the same ballot.
The original ballots are retained in case a recount is needed.
Results are avialble immediately after the election closes.
Negative points:
More costly than some other methods.
Paper ballots are not easily used by blind people.
Direct electronic counting: Voters input their vote directly into a voting machine.
Positive points: The system scales well with any number of simultaneous votes.
Negative points: Those machines are costly; cost considerations may result in a limited number of machines being installed, leading to polling stations away from voters and waiting lines.
The machines generally operate as "black boxes", their internal workings only understood by their designers; this would warrant strict technical oversight from impartial authorities, which is not always available or practiced.
The internal working of the machines may be "copyright" and not available to outside scrutiny.
A scrutineer is a person who observes voting in an election, and/or observes the counting of ballot papers, in order to check that election rules are followed. ... A referendum (plural: referendums or referenda) or plebiscite is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. ... The punch card (or Hollerith card) is a recording medium for holding information for use by automated data processing machines. ... A voting machine is a device to record and register votes to be counted as per any voting system, with or without printing a ballot for the voter to verify. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... A voting machine is a device to record and register votes to be counted as per any voting system, with or without printing a ballot for the voter to verify. ... A voting machine is a device to record and register votes to be counted as per any voting system, with or without printing a ballot for the voter to verify. ...
In central countsystems, challenged ballots shall be counted by hand after the central count poll officials at the central count location have been closed the polls.
In precinct countsystems, challenged ballots shall be counted by hand by the precinct poll officials at the precincts and the results shall be handwritten on the tape printed by the precinct ballot counter which contains the totals.
After the count, the ballots of each precinct shall be sealed in a separate envelope or box which shall be labeled with the name of the precinct, the date of the election, the type of ballots and the total number contained therein.
The antique Vote-O-Matic punch-cardvotingsystems in use in Broward and Palm Beach counties, where the canvassing boards are recounting ballots, have been associated for 25 years with inaccuracies caused by slipping card feeds and "hanging chads," which are tiny scraps of punched-out vote holes that do not fully detach from the vote card.
In effect, the Bush campaign has declared that computer votecounting precludes citizens' recounting their own ballots in the third of the country where the rickety, often error-prone Vote-O-Matic machines are used in elections.
In this system, voters punch out holes beside candidates' names on a card, and the card is passed through a card reader that shoots light through the holes and counts up the votes--that is, the points of light coming through the holes--for each candidate.
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