elections - anyone know how they count votes?

[tatt]

do they do 5 bar gates for each candidate, sort them into piles one name at a time or how?

I once had the dubious pleasure of watching a count (duller than watching paint dry by a long way). They put them in bundles of 10s for each candidate. But that system would only work if you vote for just one candiate on the ballot paper. Here we voted for 3 out of 6, so that system wouldn't work.

I think it is up to the individual returning officer to decide on the system.

Thank you. We could vote for more than one so if they do bundles they'd have to resort them every time, it will take forever.

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but if you can vote for more than one person how can they sort them into piles You'd have to put one voting slip in more than one pile? Or do they count the votes for the first listed person then resort for the second listed one and so on?

I can see how it works when you only have one vote but not when you have more than one vote.

I'll ask MIL later. She was a candidate in a ward where they were electing 3 out of 8 on the list.

I was vote counting last night (had a recount with one ward having a 16 vote separation - eek!) - we only did the single vote district elections though. The multiple parish council elections are all done the next morning by council staff adn it's done on a tally chart effort. Will be a nightmare - one voting slip had 12 candidtaes from which you could pick 7 - it was like sorting loo roll!

Plus it's really intimidating having the candidates hanging over the tables criticising your counting/sorting methods - they moaned last year because I was covering the part with the crosses while I was doubele-checking my bundles - they'd already seen them be sorted into piles

Arrrgghhhh. Just typed a long post and ds deleted it.

Just asked MIL. What they do is a variant on 5 bar gates.

They have a pre-printed piece of paper with lots of little boxes for each candidate. They then sort the voting slips into the following piles:

1. all 3 (in this case) votes for the same party. Fairly quick to count.
2. 1 or 2 votes for the same party (and for no other parties).
3. mixed slips (voting for candidates from 2 or more different parties).

Counting no 3 takes time, because they have to go through each slip carefully, and parties often demand recounts. It is a case of someone shouting out the candidiates name and another person ticking boxes (5 for Jones, 3 for Smith etc)

thanks. Maybe one day we'll all vote online