Comment Re:why the mania of using electronic counting (Score 1) 240
> Machines are "cheaper" than people, after all
Err, where I live counters are voluntary voters who sign up for counting, and nodody gets paid. I did it once, just to see how it works.
Everybody who cares can come and help in the office where he votes, but there is a strict cross-checking procedure. Each political party generally arrange to have a few members at each poll office, so everybody is sure of what happens. There is a large number of poll offices so each has only to count a few hundred votes, and the results come in in 2-4 hours.
I'm not sure that having the poll counted by counters chosen and paid by the local elected power would be such a smart idea, by the way...
Voters choose between several small printed bits of paper with the candidate name, no pencil required. And the paper trail can be kept for a while. There have been no recent major screwups with this system.
Err, where I live counters are voluntary voters who sign up for counting, and nodody gets paid. I did it once, just to see how it works.
Everybody who cares can come and help in the office where he votes, but there is a strict cross-checking procedure. Each political party generally arrange to have a few members at each poll office, so everybody is sure of what happens. There is a large number of poll offices so each has only to count a few hundred votes, and the results come in in 2-4 hours.
I'm not sure that having the poll counted by counters chosen and paid by the local elected power would be such a smart idea, by the way...
Voters choose between several small printed bits of paper with the candidate name, no pencil required. And the paper trail can be kept for a while. There have been no recent major screwups with this system.
