4 ms·
Paper and pencil doesn’t work in the US because of how litigious we are, and because each state operates their own elections. If every state ran elections the s
by generj 3y ago
Paper and pencil doesn’t work in the US because of how litigious we are, and because each state operates their own elections. If every state ran elections the same way we could standardize on something like the UK has and have collective faith in it.
When some battleground states routinely come down to less than 1% of voters, incredibly marginal effects matter.
The US still has institutional trauma from Hanging chads.
Just look at all the varied reasons mailed ballots are rejected, especially in tight races.
With paper and pencil, what happens if a mark got erased? If the circle is half filled? If the circle is quarter filled? All of these are questions that will be the subject of lawsuits in a mix of jurisdictions.
- fknorangesite 3y agoI'm in Canada; I can't speak to the specifics of the UK. > what happens if a mark got erased? If the circle is half filled? If the circle is quarter filled? When I sit down to vote, there is a very unambiguous set of instructions on how to fill it out: mark an X in the circle. - we all know perfectly well that pencil erasers aren't perfect - It's not a Scantron™ ffs! Is that what you're imagining? That's just a voting machine with extra steps! Every single ballot is counted by a human! https://electionsanddemocracy.ca/canadas-elections/canadas-election-process/election-counting https://electionsanddemocracy.ca/canadas-elections/canadas-e...
- ceejayoz 3y agoI sure hope it's counted by more than one human. What do you do if someone marks something like a Y and it looks like the ink ran out? (My local elections are indeed a Scantron-style procedure, incidentally. Bubble in the entire circle.)
- fknorangesite 3y agoObviously. I'll just quote my link directly for you, then: > First, election officers open the ballot boxes and count the ballots. Note the plural. Safeguards for Counting Votes and Reporting on Results: https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=int/cou&document=index&lang=e https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=int/co...
- cranky908canuck 3y agoThere are 'scrutineers', as well as the election officials: they are representatives of the various parties, monitoring the count.
- LeoPanthera 3y ago> With paper and pencil, what happens if a mark got erased? If the circle is half filled? If the circle is quarter filled? All of these are questions that will be the subject of lawsuits in a mix of jurisdictions. Votes are counted by humans. It's not "fill a circle", it's "draw an X in a box". It's not ambiguous.