This is how you run an election (BBV)

[TrogL]

Canada had its national election today.

I worked as a scrutineer for the Liberal party and have been an election official in the past, so I suspect I have a unique perspective.

Basically it was all over in time for the 11 p.m. news and there wasn't an electronic device in sight.

Canada uses paper ballots.

Canada uses a documentation-based voter verification system.

Canada's electoral cycle takes 36 days. In those 36 days, someone from Elections Canada visits your house and takes a tally of who is eligible to vote. This is compiled and voter cards are sent out. You take your voter card to the polling station and are automatically authenticated. If you have recently moved or for some other reason don't have a verification card, two pieces of ID are sufficient to get you registered.

A registered voter then goes to the appropriate polling station and checks in. Your name is scratched off a paper list. You are given a folded ballot and sent behind a cardboard (more paper) screen to vote. You return your marked ballot to the deputy returning officer, who tears off a counterfoil containing a serial number. Your vote goes in the ballot box, the counter foil (containing a trackable serial number) goes in a bag.

Each political party is allowed to send two scrutineers per poll (that's what I was doing today).

When the polls closed, the ballot boxes are emptied out and the little ballots are sorted and counted. The count is compared against the known number of used ballots (derived from the serial numbers on the counterfoil). When everything is counted (by hand) and tallied (manually, on paper) the results are given to the candidates' representatives who phone it in to their central offices. The official results are phoned into Election Central, which tallies the results. These are turned over to the TV and radio newsagencies for broadcast.

Generally, the results are available in time for the 11 p.m. news.

Kewl, eh?

[shraby]

1. That's how ours were done

for many years. Worked good here too.

[TrogL]

2. I take it you mean...

the US, before voting machines?

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. As far as counting the votes went it was all right, but we would still

be better off switching to a multi-party system with preferential voting and proportional representation.

With verified paper ballots, of course.