"Hand counting" redirects here. For counting with one's fingers, see Finger-counting.
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Vote counting is the process of counting votes in an election. It can be done manually or by machines. In the United States, the compilation of election returns and validation of the outcome that forms the basis of the official results is called canvassing.[1]
Counts are simplest in elections where just one choice is on the ballot, and these are often counted manually. In elections where many choices are on the same ballot, counts are often done by computers to give quick results. Tallies done at distant locations must be carried or transmitted accurately to the central election office.
Manual counts are usually accurate within one percent. Computers are at least that accurate, except when they have undiscovered bugs, broken sensors scanning the ballots, paper misfeeds, or hacks. Officials keep election computers off the internet to minimize hacking, but the manufacturers are on the internet. They and their annual updates are still subject to hacking, like any computers. Further voting machines are in public locations on election day, and often the night before, so they are vulnerable.
Paper ballots and computer files of results are stored until they are tallied, so they need secure storage, which is hard. The election computers themselves are stored for years, and briefly tested before each election.
Despite the challenges to the U.S. voting process integrity in recent years, including multiple claims by Republican Party members of error or voter fraud in 2020 and 2021, a robust examination of the voting process in multiple U.S. states, including Arizona[2] (where claims were most strenuous), found no basis in truth for those claims. The absence of error and fraud is partially attributable to the inherent checks and balances in the voting process itself, which are, as with democracy, built into the system to reduce their likelihood.
^"Chapter 13: Canvassing and Certifying an Election". Election Management Guidelines(PDF). U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
^Reinhard, Beth; Wingett Sanchez, Yvonne (September 26, 2022). "As more states create election integrity units, Arizona is a cautionary tale". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2023-04-04.
Votecounting is the process of countingvotes in an election. It can be done manually or by machines. In the United States, the compilation of election...
count systems are also commonly used to process absentee ballots. Central counting can be done by hand, and in some jurisdictions, central counting is...
in a row, the Philippines automated their elections using electronic votecounting machines. The deployment of 92,500 of these machines was the largest...
of polling stations, providing evidence to help uncover the massive votecounting fraud attempted by Marcos supporters. Sample-based election observation...
is that given large numbers of votes, candidates and/or seats, counting is administratively burdensome for a manual count due to the number of interactions...
electronic voting, paper ballots were used and manual counting was done. The printed paper ballots were expensive, required substantial post-voting resources...
to counting Biden's votes in swing states, while Trump unsuccessfully sought to have Vice President Mike Pence use his presiding role over the count to...
possibility that with no formally established counting procedure in place, partisans in Congress might use the counting process to force a desired result. The...
elected, the procedure is iterated to lower-ranked candidates. Counting, eliminations, and vote transfers continue until enough candidates are declared elected...
sealing and strong room protection, randomization of counting staff, micro observers at the counting tables, and so on.[citation needed] The Election Commission...
had won the election and calling for a stop to all votecounting, saying that continued counting was "a fraud on the American people" and "we will be...
Electronic voting is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting ballots. Depending on the particular implementation...
middle flips the votes in favour of a certain candidate and then immediately forwards them on to the vote-counting authority. All votes sent over the internet...
design, and votecounting methods. Exact proportionality has a single unambiguous definition: the seat shares must exactly equal the vote shares, measured...
criteria include political fragmentation, voter turnout, wasted votes, complexity of votecounting, and barriers to entry for new political movements. The quality...
the contingent vote, systems like instant-runoff voting (IRV), Coombs' method, and Baldwin's method allow for many rounds of counting, eliminating only...
counting would lead to the following result, in which each candidate receives 3 more points than under tournament counting. Tournament-style counting...
the votes by post. When the counting of votes commences, these postal votes are counted first before the counting of votes from the electronic voting machines...
Hermès ties", differentiating them from local citizens concerned about votecounting. Many of the demonstrators were Republican staffers. Both Roger Stone...
average of 17 contests per ballot, so machine-counting can be faster and less expensive than hand-counting. The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is...
penalty or any mechanism to prevent the deviant vote from counting as cast. Counting Electoral Votes: An Overview of Procedures at the Joint Session,...
majority vote is when more than half of voters vote for the same person or party. However, whilst it is usually said each individual's vote does count, many...
the event of a "Yes" victory. Controversies over both the provincial votecounting and direct federal financial involvement in the final days of the campaign...
across four phases, the polls coincided with the Lok Sabha elections. Votecounting for the assembly election took place on May 23, concluding before the...
electoral districts. That makes plurality voting among the simplest of all electoral systems for voters and votecounting officials; however, the drawing of...
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