What Hand Counted Paper Ballots Look Like - Wiki & Journal [View All]

This is meant to be an informational journal about hand counted paper ballots.

Consider this a sort of Wikie, an open source where you can
contribute your knowledge or ideas regarding HCPB.

Below I am posting information and pictures from Febble's posts (with permission)
and some pictures of optical scan ballots posted by TroubleInWinter.

UK ballots have a single contest on them.

US ballots have multiple contests (50 + ) on them.

Here are some pictures of the UK ballots:

Here are pictures of US Ballots - with a California Ballot
that has 53 items to be voted for

Febble:
"In the UK, there's only one contest on the ballot, and it is a list of names in big letters, with a box next to each name.
You put a cross in the box.
You mark the box next to the candidate you want to vote for with a pencil.

When we have more than one race (and there is rarely more than one race, and very rarely more than two) we have a separate ballot paper for each race, each on different coloured paper.
The first thing that happens is that the ballots are sorted into different races.

Occasionally there are two, or even three races in an election - there might be a referendum on some constitutional matter (devolved parliament for Scotland; entry into the EC) or a local, regional, or European election, but it is unusual to have several races.

For general elections there can be a long list of names, because there are a lot of silly candidates
(Monster Raving Loony Party candidates, etc) but for other elections, it seems to be usually the
three main parties and a few fringe parties.

In the UK it takes a few hours to count tens of thousands of ballots, which means we can count
in far larger units (constituencies). This ensures good oversight.

Apart from the that, it's quite incredibly simple compared to the US!

How anyone would oversee the process of counting US ballots in such a way that it could be checked?
With UK ballots, scrutineers can check the piles are sorted correctly, and you can actually watch the piles being stacked and counted.

If you want a system as uncorruptible as ours you have to do more than simply post pictures of hand counting in Scotland. You have to demonstrate how that system could possibly be applied to the US.

And our system isn't even uncorruptible. It's easily corruptible. But election thieves in the UK have to use a different method - they steal ballots. Which are then counted with a high degree of accuracy.

Here's a nice series of images that may help you see just how simple our system is (Cambridge this time):

http://www.lucas-smith.co.uk/photos/elections /


It's a simple system because we have simple ballots."

If you have information on HCPB, please post it on this thread.