100
votes
Why is vote counting made so laborious in the US?
Mail-in voting and provisional ballots: In many states, mail-in votes are allowed to arrive well after election day, provided they are postmarked on or before election day. Voters who cast a ...
- 9,463
60
votes
Traditionally, and currently, what stops human vote counters from altering ballots to make them 'Spoilt / Invalid votes?
I think that this risk is greatly diminished by relying on multiple persons doing the counting simultaneously, the so called two man rule.
Because you expressed disbelief in that in a comment, let me ...
- 9,832
54
votes
Accepted
Examples of unintentionally confusing ballot design?
The Butterfly Ballot
2000 Presidential Election in Palm Beach, Florida
In the 2000 election, Palm Beach County was using a hole-punch voting machine with a single column of holes. Hole-punch ballots ...
- 1,378
42
votes
Why is vote counting made so laborious in the US?
It doesn't need to be fast
While the popular vote is important, the electoral college will "meet" in mid-December to decide the winner. There is no pressing need within the system to ...
- 991
36
votes
Examples of unintentionally confusing ballot design?
In the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections, which operates under the Additional Members System (AMS), the ballots for the regional and constituency votes were combined onto one piece of paper, as below....
CDJB♦
- 109k
35
votes
Examples of unintentionally confusing ballot design?
The Brennan Center for Justice has done some work on this exact question. Their full article can be found here, but I'll list a few of the examples they've gathered.
In 2018, Broward County, Florida ...
- 1,329
28
votes
Traditionally, and currently, what stops human vote counters from altering ballots to make them 'Spoilt / Invalid votes?
That would be illegal and unprofessional, and a high-risk-low-return crime.
The first step is to hire good honest people. People who have something to lose if they are convicted of a crime of ...
- 124k
22
votes
Why is vote counting made so laborious in the US?
It actually isn't laborious.
U.K. observers have to realize several things first of all:
Using Sunderland as an example is stacking the deck. Sunderland isn't even a fair comparison to most ballot ...
- 1,945
20
votes
Why is vote counting made so laborious in the US?
There are technical reasons for this detailed well in Kevin's answer, but there's an undergirding philosophical position that provides an essential context to questions like this:
We're talking about ...
- 8,706
19
votes
Traditionally, and currently, what stops human vote counters from altering ballots to make them 'Spoilt / Invalid votes?
This is why there should never be only one human counter.
Instead, you should have a team counting the votes. A team where people nominated by different parties work together and can oversee each ...
- 1,945
15
votes
Questions about mail-in ballot
Basically, if you vote illegally, and you are caught, you can be prosecuted criminally for doing so. This would usually be a felony. The more often you commit the crime, the more likely you are to be ...
- 88.3k
14
votes
Why is vote counting made so laborious in the US?
In addition to what many said here already, some points:
the 'huge' numbers of votes to be counted should not make any difference. All related tasks could be easily parallelized
basically, every ...
- 827
13
votes
Accepted
During a US election, are mailed-in votes counted first, second or there is no order?
That depends on the laws in each state. In some states mail in ballots can be counted as they come in but in others they can't be counted until the polls close.
I have included a couple of states for ...
- 18.4k
13
votes
Election disruption caused by ballot typographic error or omission
The Canadian town next door to me voided an election for school board trustees after it was discovered two candidates were left off the ballot. A special election was called a month later.
I believe ...
- 16.3k
10
votes
In the US presidential election, how would the ballots look like if there were 10,000 candidates?
What would happen if they got 10,000 candidates? Would the ballot need to list all these names?
This would be extremely unlikely to happen in many states. States have ballot access laws, which as you ...
CDJB♦
- 109k
10
votes
Secret ballot vs vote by mail
Vote by mail does not preclude secret ballots
I am a resident of Oregon, which was the first state to move to an entirely vote-by-mail system following the passage of Ballot Measure 60 in 1998.
A ...
- 305
10
votes
Accepted
California Governor - Recall Election - Can you vote "no" and still pick a successor?
Yes - according to the California Secretary of State's website:
What does a recall ballot look like?
The September 14, 2021, California Gubernatorial Recall Election
ballot will have two parts.
There ...
CDJB♦
- 109k
10
votes
Election disruption caused by ballot typographic error or omission
Since you asked for anecdotes...
About 25 years ago, I was a member of an electoral comission for the student's parliament at a German university. (These parliaments are prescribed by state law.) As ...
- 9,313
10
votes
Does Arizona Proposition 133 [2024] just ban ranked choice voting?
Ballotpedia explains Arizona Amendment 133 (in 2024) as follows:
A "yes" vote supports this constitutional amendment to:
require partisan primary elections for partisan offices;
prohibit ...
- 88.3k
9
votes
Questions about mail-in ballot
With most things in the U.S., that apparently comes down to how the specific states handle it. Like that already starts with the fact that some states prefer mail-in ballots, some allow it without an ...
- 7,946
8
votes
Why are the last U.S. states to get their votes in all swing states?
One answer I just heard from a friend on social media:
The last states to have their votes in are not necessarily swing states. The results reported in media are statistical projections. States with ...
- 283
7
votes
Accepted
What are the repercussions of a poorly designed ballot?
If a ballot design is determined to have caused a number of people to unintentionally skip a vote on the ballot, are any steps taken to ensure all votes are counted?
No. Ballot design needs to be ...
- 90.3k
7
votes
Accepted
Why can a candidate be on the ballot for 2 parties?
This article explains the procedure behind it. A few quotes:
Electoral fusion is an arrangement where two or more political parties on a ballot list the same candidate, pooling the votes for that ...
- 33k
7
votes
Traditionally, and currently, what stops human vote counters from altering ballots to make them 'Spoilt / Invalid votes?
Damaging any significant number of ballots (a) would be extremely difficult if independent observers are present, and (b) would make the polling station stand out statistically, which increases the ...
- 2,660
6
votes
Accepted
Multiple/ Changing running mate in US presidential election
The US presidential election is not a direct popular vote. Instead the states each select a number of individuals to a hypothetical Electoral college. These individuals , commonly termed electors, go ...
- 21.4k
6
votes
Accepted
What happens to the physical votes after an election is complete and certified in the US?
For federal elections, records must be retained for twenty-two months. Otherwise, state law applies.
52 U.S. Code § 20701 - Retention and preservation of records and papers by officers of elections; ...
- 36.6k
6
votes
Do Australian and Irish elections use ballot scanners on ranked-choice ballots?
In Australia, the senate elections have been counted electronically for quite some time, with the software having existed in some form since at least 2003 (see the submission linked in the annotation) ...
- 496
6
votes
Evidence of widespread voter fraud stemming from absentee ballots
The 300 ballots were a simple theft.
In this election, for this case cited, look at No evidence of election fraud by man found passed out with 300 recall ballots, drugs in Torrance: Police | KTLA.
“...
- 92.8k
5
votes
Accepted
Can members of the public attend UK General Election ballot counts?
The counters are volunteers. Anyone can volunteer, but the local governments that run the counts prefer people with administrative and organisational experience, and many of the regular counters are ...
- 10.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible