Timeline for Why is vote counting made so laborious in the US?
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34 events
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| Nov 8, 2020 at 17:16 | comment | added | WS2 | @Tim It is a Returning Officer who is responsible for the count in any constituency. As far as I know the same RO does not act for more than one constituency. These RO's are often Local Government officials -and their staff local government employees. But an RO, acting in that capacity, is not, I am firmly of the opinion, responsible to a Council, but to Parliament. | |
| Nov 7, 2020 at 10:25 | comment | added | Tim | @aliential the average is well under a day in the U.K. And are you sure city councils count them all together? Remember, a city is divided into many constituencies. | |
| Nov 7, 2020 at 9:47 | comment | added | Wrzlprmft | If you want another, less insular example: The German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen held a communal election a few months ago with four different votes to be cast on average and high mail vote ratios due to Covid 19. All votes were counted by hand and only after polls closed at 18:00. All preliminary official results were in the next morning, many earlier. It’s a bit difficult to find English news coverage on this, but here is some: 1, 2 | |
| Nov 7, 2020 at 8:20 | comment | added | WS2 | @Tim I provided the Sunderland example as it was a dramatic contrast. Nonetheless I fully accept that it was exceptional. However in 2019, 535 of the 650 constituencies had declared by 6.00am. By US standards that is more than satisfactory. | |
| Nov 7, 2020 at 6:46 | answer | added | Zach Lipton | timeline score: 2 | |
| Nov 7, 2020 at 2:43 | comment | added | bandybabboon | that's a thesis, which starts by failing to mention sunderland co had 25,000 ballots to count, and that they probably weren't an average, the average in the UK takes all day, with some city councils having a million votes. Most US states take 1 day too. with teh slowest taking 2-3 days usually, except in pandemic times, masks, precautions, mail in votes, staying home, distancing, all adds up. | |
| Nov 6, 2020 at 19:51 | comment | added | Tim | Comparing Sunderland (the fastest in the U.K.), as you’ve touched on in your last paragraph, is not very fair. In 2020 it took nearly 12 hours for some areas of Cornwall to report in. Of course, that’s a lot faster than the US, but it’s still strange to have this comparison. If anything, taking the slowest of 12 hours would be more dramatic to me? | |
| Nov 6, 2020 at 18:43 | answer | added | Statsanalyst | timeline score: 3 | |
| Nov 6, 2020 at 18:36 | history | edited | WS2 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Nov 6, 2020 at 18:23 | comment | added | WS2 | @CGCampbell We often have recounts in the UK. A losing candidate who is within a small margin of winning can demand a recount. Another cause of recounts is the deposit system. Every candidate has to place a £500 deposit, which is refunded provided they poll more than 5% of the votes cast. Sometimes a candidate who has polled say 4.9% will demand a recount, to try and get their money back. | |
| Nov 6, 2020 at 15:17 | comment | added | WS2 | @OscarBravo The clip you provide is of course of the count in Theresa May's (the then PM) constituency. And she has to suffer the indignity of having her name read out with that of Lord Buckethead etc. | |
| Nov 6, 2020 at 15:11 | comment | added | WS2 | @OscarBravo Great. I was looking for one of those. Thanks Perhaps we should explain to our American cousins that in seats where an important figure e.g the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition etc is standing - it attracts all kinds of colourful comic candidates. It is one of the great features of British elections which helps prevent people taking the whole thing too seriously. Pity they don't have declarations in the US. They do need to bring a bit more humour to the matter I feel. | |
| Nov 6, 2020 at 14:11 | answer | added | ThaRobster | timeline score: 3 | |
| Nov 6, 2020 at 13:24 | comment | added | Oscar Bravo | You might've used a video clip with the Monster Raving Loony Party... Like this one: youtube.com/watch?v=SZxZlSZrPeQ | |
| Nov 6, 2020 at 9:50 | history | edited | WS2 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Nov 6, 2020 at 3:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackPolitics/status/1324547195799031810 | ||
| Nov 6, 2020 at 0:49 | answer | added | Aganju | timeline score: 14 | |
| Nov 5, 2020 at 20:40 | history | edited | WS2 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| S Nov 5, 2020 at 20:19 | history | mod moved comments to chat | |||
| S Nov 5, 2020 at 20:19 | comment | added | JJJ♦ | Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. Please use comments to suggest improvements to the question. If you want to discuss further, please use the chat room. | |
| Nov 5, 2020 at 19:18 | answer | added | JdeBP | timeline score: 22 | |
| Nov 5, 2020 at 18:59 | answer | added | Jared Smith | timeline score: 20 | |
| Nov 5, 2020 at 18:54 | history | edited | divibisan | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Nov 5, 2020 at 17:57 | answer | added | gormadoc | timeline score: 42 | |
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| Nov 5, 2020 at 7:55 | answer | added | Kevin | timeline score: 100 | |
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| Nov 5, 2020 at 7:34 | history | asked | WS2 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |