Quote:
Originally Posted by IntenseFan
Because we don't use those bloody machines.
As antiquated 100% hand counting may be, our smaller population makes it possible and in this case our lack of technology has actually mostly benefited us (or at least saved us from long protracted litigation over election results - except Ward 10 of course).
|
Population has nothing to do with using voting machines.
First, the US federal election is actually 50 smaller elections, since each state counts their votes individually. Only one state, California, has a population similar in size to Canada.
Second, I don't imagine any individual polling station in any American precinct handles more voters than any polling station in Canada. Yes, they have many more precints than we do, but this is one problem that scales very easily with population.
Third, this was the primary of a relatively small state. How many total votes were cast? A few hundred thousand? There's no reason those couldn't be counted by hand.
Tabulating votes really is one area where throwing more technology at the problem isn't going to solve it. It's much simpler and more accurate to do things the way we do here: a representative of Elections Canada counts each ballot by hand, and volunteers for every candidate ("scrutineers") are permitted to observe the process and question the validity of any vote.
I personally would
never cast my vote on a computer that has no paper trail.
