3 ms·

The UK counts all their votes by hand. Overnight.

neffy 8y ago
And you don't want to be on the roads right after the polls close and they race each other to get the ballot boxes into the counter centres. More importantly, yes you can rig a paper ballot, but you can't do it large scale without everybody knowing it.
- handelaar 8y ago
  Well, kinda. In the UK state-level interference would likely go unnoticed if it mugged only postal votes and didn't push too obviously-far in one direction or another. I've been on the receiving end of mail interference and since then I can only assume it's become a lot cheaper to do than it was.
andrewla 8y ago
Out of curiosity, what does a UK ballot look like? I found [1], is that typical? Part of the problem might be one of ballot design. A US ballot is typically considerably more complicated than that. Here's one from New York [2]. There will be many races; in a presidential election there will be president, usually senator, representative, governor, state senator, local councilman, and assorted other offices. At least in New York State, the candidates will be presented by party, so a single candidate may be on the ballot multiple times. Nobody is counting the US one by hand overnight; not without some pretty comprehensive redesigns of the ballot. [1] https://www.gravesham.gov.uk/home/elections-and-voting/guide-to-voting/what-a-ballot-paper-looks-like https://www.gravesham.gov.uk/home/elections-and-voting/guide... [2] http://www.otsegocounty.com/depts/boe/images/WO.jpg http://www.otsegocounty.com/depts/boe/images/WO.jpg
- makomk 8y ago
  That's one of the simpler UK ballots. Some of our council elections allow us to elect more than one candidate, and our mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections uses the rather oddball supplementary vote system.
- JetSpiegel 8y ago
  > http://www.otsegocounty.com/depts/boe/images/WO.jpg http://www.otsegocounty.com/depts/boe/images/WO.jpg This is insane. The Democrats ran in 4 "parties", and the Republicans in 3 "parties", for governor. The Libertarian party nominated 2 separate sets of governor/deputy governor. The non main parties nominated the same people (sometimes), but not for some categories, randomly. Some people are nominated on different parties that nominate different people for governor. Ultimately, it's a 2-person race in most posts, and a single nomination for coroner. Why not have 14 simple ballots with a straight choice?
SaltySolomon 8y ago
But it is really slow in comparison to lets say Germany or Austria where 80%+ votes are counted after 2 hours.
rstuart4133 8y ago
Australia also counts all the votes by hand. In most cases the results for the lower house are known before the day is over, so like the UK we are pretty good at counting votes. The same people also do the upper house count, which usually elects 1/4 the number of people in the lower house. Very roughly, the results are usually know in a month or so. https://www.aec.gov.au/voting/counting/senate_count.htm https://www.aec.gov.au/voting/counting/senate_count.htm If the results were recorded electronically I guess a computer would spit out the final outcome within a few minutes of the ballot box closing.

And you don't want to be on the roads right after the polls close and they race each other to get the ballot boxes into the counter centres. More importantly, yes you can rig a paper ballot, but you can't do it large scale without everybody knowing it.

handelaar 8y ago
Well, kinda. In the UK state-level interference would likely go unnoticed if it mugged only postal votes and didn't push too obviously-far in one direction or another. I've been on the receiving end of mail interference and since then I can only assume it's become a lot cheaper to do than it was.

andrewla 8y ago

Out of curiosity, what does a UK ballot look like? I found [1], is that typical? Part of the problem might be one of ballot design. A US ballot is typically considerably more complicated than that. Here's one from New York [2]. There will be many races; in a presidential election there will be president, usually senator, representative, governor, state senator, local councilman, and assorted other offices. At least in New York State, the candidates will be presented by party, so a single candidate may be on the ballot multiple times. Nobody is counting the US one by hand overnight; not without some pretty comprehensive redesigns of the ballot. [1] https://www.gravesham.gov.uk/home/elections-and-voting/guide-to-voting/what-a-ballot-paper-looks-like https://www.gravesham.gov.uk/home/elections-and-voting/guide... [2] http://www.otsegocounty.com/depts/boe/images/WO.jpg http://www.otsegocounty.com/depts/boe/images/WO.jpg

makomk 8y ago
That's one of the simpler UK ballots. Some of our council elections allow us to elect more than one candidate, and our mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections uses the rather oddball supplementary vote system.
JetSpiegel 8y ago
> http://www.otsegocounty.com/depts/boe/images/WO.jpg http://www.otsegocounty.com/depts/boe/images/WO.jpg This is insane. The Democrats ran in 4 "parties", and the Republicans in 3 "parties", for governor. The Libertarian party nominated 2 separate sets of governor/deputy governor. The non main parties nominated the same people (sometimes), but not for some categories, randomly. Some people are nominated on different parties that nominate different people for governor. Ultimately, it's a 2-person race in most posts, and a single nomination for coroner. Why not have 14 simple ballots with a straight choice?

SaltySolomon 8y ago

But it is really slow in comparison to lets say Germany or Austria where 80%+ votes are counted after 2 hours.

rstuart4133 8y ago

Australia also counts all the votes by hand. In most cases the results for the lower house are known before the day is over, so like the UK we are pretty good at counting votes. The same people also do the upper house count, which usually elects 1/4 the number of people in the lower house. Very roughly, the results are usually know in a month or so. https://www.aec.gov.au/voting/counting/senate_count.htm https://www.aec.gov.au/voting/counting/senate_count.htm If the results were recorded electronically I guess a computer would spit out the final outcome within a few minutes of the ballot box closing.