If India can have voters vote and tally all the votes in one day, then so can everyone else. It’s the best way to avoid fraud and people going with whoever is ahead. I am sympathetic with emergency protocols for deadly pandemics, but for all else, in-person on a given day.

▲ sampo 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

> If India can have voters vote and tally all the votes in one day, then so can everyone else.

In most countries, in the elections you vote or the member of parliament you want. Presidential elections, and city council elections are held separately, but are also equally simple. But in one election you cast your vote for one person, and that's it.

With this kind of elections, many countries manage to hold the elections on paper ballots, count them all by hand, and publish results by midnight.

But on an American ballot, you vote for, for example:

    - US president
    - US senator  
    - US member of congress  
    - state governor  
    - state senator  
    - state member of congress  
    - several votes for several different state judge positions  
    - several other state officer positions  
    - several votes for several local county officers  
    - local sheriff  
    - local school board member  
    - several yes/no votes for several proposed laws, whether they should be passed or not

I don't think it would be possible to calculate all these 20 or 40 votes, if calculated by hand. That's why they use voting machines in America.

https://ballotpedia.org/Official_sample_ballots,_2020

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Freedom2 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

How is it not possible? It's just additional votes, there isn't anything actually stopping counting by hand, is there? How was it counted historically without voting machines?

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stevenwoo 5 days ago | parent [-]

It takes a lot of people (redundancy and to keep shift hours low to increase count accuracy) to accurately count by hand. https://verifiedvoting.org/election-system/hand-counted-pape...

	▲	Freedom2 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		That makes it difficult, but the original comment said it wasn't 'possible'. I'm failing to see the impossibility still.

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konimex 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Say, how many voting stations are there in a typical city/county in the US?

Here in Indonesia, in a city of 2 million people there are over 7000 voting stations. While we vote for 5 ballots (President, Legislative (National, Province, and City/Regency), we still use paper ballots and count them by hand.

▲ 20kleagues 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Voting in India is staggered over multiple phases over multiple days/weeks. Only the vote count happens on a single day at the end.

▲ platevoltage 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

If it's not a national holiday where the vast majority of people don't have to work, and if there aren't polling places reasonably near every voting age citizen, it's voter suppression.

	▲	trenchpilgrim 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		In particular India has a law that no one shall be made to walk more than 2km to vote. The Indian military will literally deploy a voting booth into the jungle so that a single caretaker of an old temple can vote.