Vote counting system

Election technology
Certification of voting machines Independent Testing Authority (ITA) NVLAP VVSG End-to-end auditable voting systems Help America Vote Act Independent verification systems Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment Software independence
Terminology
Central count or CCOS Overvote Precinct count or PCOS Undervote Residual vote or drop-off
Testing
Acceptance testing Qualification testing Software verification Usability testing
Technology
Absentee ballot Chad DRE voting machine Electronic voting Optical scan voting system Provisional ballot Voting machine Voter-verified paper audit trail Vote counting system
Manufacturers
Election Systems & Software Hart InterCivic Dominion Voting Smartmatic

There exist various methods through which the ballots cast at an election may be counted, prior to applying a voting system to obtain one or more winners.

Manual counting

Manual counting requires a physical ballot that represents voter intent. The physical ballots are read and interpreted; then results are individually tabulated.^[1] This method is used in Sweden for example, and conducted as follows. The voter casts three ballots, one for each of the three elections (national, regional, and local), each in a sealed envelope. The party and candidate names are pre-printed on the ballot, or the voter can write them in on a blank ballot. When voting has finished, all envelopes are opened on the counting table, for one election at a time. They are sorted in piles according to party, inspecting them for validity. The piles are then counted manually, while witnesses around the table observe. The count is recorded, and the same pile is counted again. If the results do not agree, it is counted a third time. When all piles are counted and the results agree, the result is certified and transmitted for central tabulation. The count as received is made public, to allow anyone to double-check the tabulation and audit the raw data. There appears to be a high level of confidence in this system among the population, as evidenced by the lack of criticism of it.

Such a system may be used for recounts in areas where mechanical or automated counting systems are used.

Electromechanical and Optical scan counting

Further information: Optical scan voting system

Paper ballots, typically punched cards or marksense, are collected and fed into a machine to tabulate vote totals. Tabulation can occur with each individual ballot, or in batches.^[2]

Direct-recording voting (mechanical) counting

Voters selecting switches (levers), pushing plastic chips through holes, or pushing mechanical buttons which increment a mechanical counter (sometimes called the odometer) for the appropriate candidate panot.^[1]

Direct-recording electronic counting

Main article: DRE voting machine

Voting data and ballot images are recorded in memory components. Tabulation of the voting data stored in a removable memory component and as printed copy. The system may also provide a means for transmitting individual ballots or vote totals to a central location for consolidating and reporting results from precincts at the central location. This consolidation can be any subset of machines, such as all voting machines in a polling station, or all voting machines in a precinct, etc.^[3]

References

External links

The Election Technology Library research list - A comprehensive list of research relating to technology use in elections.
E-Voting information from ACE Project
AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project
Electronic Voting Systems at DMOZ
Voting and Elections by Douglas W. Jones: Thorough articles about the history and problems with Voting Machinery
Selker, Ted Scientific American Magazine Fixing the Vote October 2004
The Machinery of Democracy: Voting System Security, Accessibility, Usability, and Cost from Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
An index of articles on vote counting from the ACE Project guide to designing and administering elections

Voting systems

Part of the Politics and Election series

Single-winner voting system	Approval voting Borda count Bucklin voting Contingent vote Coombs' method Copeland's method Exhaustive ballot First-past-the-post voting Instant-runoff voting Kemeny–Young method Simple majoritarianism Minimax Condorcet Nanson's method Plurality Positional voting system Range voting Ranked pairs Schulze method Two-round system

Proportional representation	Mixed-member Party-list Single transferable vote Schulze STV CPO-STV Highest averages method Sainte-Laguë D'Hondt Largest remainder method Alternative vote Plus Closed list Open list Overhang seat Underhang seat

Semi-proportional representation	Parallel voting Single non-transferable vote Cumulative voting Limited voting Proportional approval voting Sequential proportional approval voting Satisfaction approval voting

Usage	Table of voting systems by country

Voting system criterion	Condorcet criterion Condorcet loser criterion Consistency criterion Independence of clones Independence of irrelevant alternatives Independence of Smith-dominated alternatives Later-no-harm criterion Majority criterion Majority loser criterion Monotonicity criterion Mutual majority criterion Pareto efficiency Participation criterion Plurality criterion Resolvability criterion Reversal symmetry Smith criterion

Voting system quotas	Droop quota Hagenbach-Bischoff quota Hare quota Imperiali quota

Other	Ballot Vote counting system Election threshold First-preference votes Spoilt vote Sortition

Portal — Project

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, May 20, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.