Voting Methods

[Gobalopper]

Just curious what methods people around the world use when voting. Here we just have a piece of paper that has circles you put an X in. Pretty simple but then we normally only vote on one thing.

[DjCiD]

I have used the electronic voting thingy and I faintly remember my parents using the big square thingy with a lever and buttons to vote.

[number6]

Here in Maryland we have to complete a line between 2 dots next to the candidates name on a sheet of paper. You have to use these special felt tip markers that they provide at the booth or your selections won't register. Once you are finished you insert your sheet into a tabulating machine and if you did it right a green light will flash. I think they give you three chances to get it right even if you screw up. I have seen some people use their own pen even when the administrators tell them that they must use the provided marker.

[Acriku]

Americans use the Australian ballot, where it is a secret ballot, and usually votes are registered by the absence of chads (where they punched their desired candidate's chad out).

[Mahdi]

I liekt eh methods used on various episodes of the simpsons best.

[DukeLeto]

Here in good old Florida, we have no standardized voting methodl. There's the easiest, "fill in the bubble" standardized-test style. Then there's the "punch out the hole" style, EG "chad style". And then there's the "butterfly" ballot, the cryptic, screwed-up kind that put Dubya in office.

[Andrew]

I'll be voting for my government of Prince Edward Island by the end of the month, will fill you in.

I think it is mark on papar.

[Caid Ivik]

Papers and urns, what else. What's on paper depends on type of voting.

[Terror]

you mean voting for elections? Well, in the past it was pencil and paper here. Now it's all electronic. Step to the machine, push the desired button and you are out of there

[lowzeewee]

Just curious what methods people around the world use when voting. Here we just have a piece of paper that has circles you put an X in. Pretty simple but then we normally only vote on one thing.

According to my parents,its the same here.

[Cyborg]

Here in Norway, we have a piece of paper where we mark which party we're voting for. Afterwards, we stuff our voting papers into an urn.

All votes are manually counted...

[Babylon]

you mean voting for elections? Well, in the past it was pencil and paper here. Now it's all electronic. Step to the machine, push the desired button and you are out of there

To be more precise. The machine holds all the parties on the top row and beneath them are all electable party members. You click the button next to the disered candidate and then you press the big red button.

A party gets then total_number_of_votes/votes_for_party = places in parlement. So if a party gets 15 seats, the top 15 candidates from that party get elected. UNLESS for example number 16 on the list got more personal votes than number 15, that way number 16 will get a seat.

[gryphon]

I liekt eh methods used on various episodes of the simpsons best.

You are refering to Nelson just beating the living daylight out of anyone not agreing with him. . . or anyone at random for that matter ?

Same as Babylon and Flameweaver have mentioned. Only with the addition of a blanco button at the top . . .

[Inoculator9]

Here in West Virginia, we chip our votes into rocks and throw them at government officials as they drive down the highway.

[Atomic Mitten]

ROTFL. ;D

I think we should try that here, sounds like a good way of getting the attention of Politicians.

[Andrew]

Ok, I voted last Saturday.

I went in and told them what district I am from. That person then directed to to the correct table(there were only 2) I then told them my name and civic number. They then found my name adn both people at the table then proceeded to scratch out my name. They then gave me a ballot. I then went behing some cardboard wall, opened it, and marked an X on the person I wanted to vote for. You could vote for Liberal, Conservative or NDP. Then I took it back out to the table I was at, adn the person ripped off a part of it then placed the ballot only(not ripped off part) into a box. I was at the early vote. (real election doesn't happen until September 29.)

An example of a political party where I'm from is www.patbinns.ca Pat binns is the Premier and leader of the Conservative party. Conservatives have the most money as they won the lsat 2 elections. then Liberals, then the NDP *snicker*

http://www.liberal.pe.ca/ is the liberals webpage, And I'm not even going to bother looking for the NDP one.

Did I forget to say that PEI Loves Toronto? :-*

[Mahdi]

We have the infamous acorn and bark method. If you want to vote liberal, you put an acorn in the box. Conservative, a peice of bark.

No problems with mistaken votes or voting scandals like in the states. Only problem is that after a few million votes, the boxes start to get a wee bit heavey.

[Andrew]

How do you vote for NDP Mahdi? ;D

[Mahdi]

Oddly enough, that never came up.

[nemafakei]

Here, a cross is placed next to the MP for whom you vote. The MP who gets into the House of Commons is the one with the most votes in that constituency; the man who becomes PM is the one who has the most votes for him in the HoC (provided he is accepted by the Queen). Th PM then appoints cabinet ministers, who must also swear fidelity to HM.

The civil service is completely unaffected by elections. The House of Lords is added-to by the incumbent PM, more or less, though that's set to change. The Lord Chancellor sits in the HoL, the cabinet and the Judiciary, but doesn't do much else. His 1400-year-old post is going to go. Motions are debated before the houses, and they used to vote on what to do. Since about 1997, motions are debated before the houses, and the PM decides what he wants to do, and if he needs to pass new legislation to do it, he'll put a three-line whip on his 400-odd New Labour MPs, try to get it through the Lords three times, then overrule them.

That's a brief summary. I've not mentioned a tenth of what I could.

[alchemi2]

AH a brilliant sumation of good old british democracy in its wonderful convoluted form. but u forgot to mention council election and regional elections and EC elections and then theres the scotish,welsh and northern irish parliment or whatever there called. Does everyone work for the goverment in this country lol.

Of course the real power here is the civil service which ain't that civil, rarly serves and have most of the power and simply out anyone who gives them grief to the press. ::)

OH the church and monoach which still have power and control huge tracts of land in this little old isle. It's great to be English :)

[nemafakei]

Not including the local council elections...

[Andrew]

We vote with no electricity.

http://www.canada.com/ottawa/story.asp?id=017F0EC1-912A-4257-B4B2-CD474BFA96AC

Here's some interesting quotes.

"Politics on the Island is like religion," Ghiz said in his Charlottetown headquarters.

Binns voted at a polling station lit by a single bulb dangling over the voting booth.

Pollsters and pundits were predicting Premier Pat Binns would have little trouble winning his third consecutive majority government.

The last time such a feat was accomplished on the Island was in the 1880s.

The Liberal in my district is poised to win. EDIT - He lost marginally.

PEI has a record of having about 80% voter turnout.