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Hand counts and paper in the UK too. It's just not a problem you need to solve with machines, and while UK politics is deeply stupid, flawed and unserious in ma

Hand counts and paper in the UK too. It's just not a problem you need to solve with machines, and while UK politics is deeply stupid, flawed and unserious in many ways, at least this endless, endless bullshit and screeching over chads and machines and hacking and conspiracies and all the other nonsense the cousins get up to is not part of it. Results don't take long to count, even though there are about 30 million ballots. Polls close at 10pm, the first constituency declares some time between 11 and midnight usually, it's 90% done by about 6am[1], and the last will be some time on the second day if there are multiple recounts. Due to the FPTP system, it doesn't really even matter about the rest once the post is already reached - which is its own problem, but it's not like machine-based recount drama doesn't drag on for ages too. [1]: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-10009/CBP-10009.pdf#page=91 https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-...

jebarker 1y ago
The machines aren’t the cause of the endless screaming. The conspiracy theorists also claim to find plenty of “evidence” of tampering with physical ballots and the counting process.
like_any_other 1y ago
The "problem" isn't that hand-counting is too inaccurate or too slow (as if governments can be changed so quickly that a few days delay matters). The problem is that to compromise hand-counted, paper elections, you need to compromise a lot of people.
mc32 1y ago
Everyone should be invested in ensuring votes and the ballots are error free and untampered. Everyone should be in favor of accurate counts. We should also not be accepting votes with date stamps past election day. Or votes with no date stamp. If we go all-in on electronic ballots, I think this is the place we could use a block chain to ensure security, traceability and accountability.

jebarker 1y ago

The machines aren’t the cause of the endless screaming. The conspiracy theorists also claim to find plenty of “evidence” of tampering with physical ballots and the counting process.

like_any_other 1y ago

The "problem" isn't that hand-counting is too inaccurate or too slow (as if governments can be changed so quickly that a few days delay matters). The problem is that to compromise hand-counted, paper elections, you need to compromise a lot of people.

mc32 1y ago

Everyone should be invested in ensuring votes and the ballots are error free and untampered. Everyone should be in favor of accurate counts. We should also not be accepting votes with date stamps past election day. Or votes with no date stamp. If we go all-in on electronic ballots, I think this is the place we could use a block chain to ensure security, traceability and accountability.