> Sometimes, IMHO, there's just no alternative to pen and paper. Surely
> the manual method of ticking a box and having multiple human vote
> counters checking ballots is the best option going, even if it is more
> expensive. (I confess I've no idea what costs are involved either way.)
According to Elections Canada, the 2000 general election cost $200.6
million (Canadian dollars). But this included everything, including
maintenance of voter registries, reimbursement of expenses to
political parties and candidates, etc.
In that election, there were 28,846,761 voters, so the cost
per voter was around $6.95 Canadian, or $5.43 US.
I suspect that the cost to actually count the votes is significantly less
than this figure. I have no idea what the figures are for electronic
voting, but I doubt it can be done for much under $4 to $5/voter.
Consider that the average polling station contributes a couple of
hundred votes to the total. So you can hire six people at $25/hour
for 5 hours each (two shifts) to man the station and count the
ballots afterwards, and you've spent $750, some of which you recover
in the form of income tax. :-)
Now how many voting machines would such a polling station require? And can
you buy a super-de-duper-de-luxe voting machine for $750?
> Sometimes, IMHO, there's just no alternative to pen and paper. Surely
> the manual method of ticking a box and having multiple human vote
> counters checking ballots is the best option going, even if it is more
> expensive. (I confess I've no idea what costs are involved either way.)
According to Elections Canada, the 2000 general election cost $200.6
million (Canadian dollars). But this included everything, including
maintenance of voter registries, reimbursement of expenses to
political parties and candidates, etc.
Source: http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=faq&document=faqelec&lang=e
In that election, there were 28,846,761 voters, so the cost
per voter was around $6.95 Canadian, or $5.43 US.
I suspect that the cost to actually count the votes is significantly less
than this figure. I have no idea what the figures are for electronic
voting, but I doubt it can be done for much under $4 to $5/voter.
Consider that the average polling station contributes a couple of
hundred votes to the total. So you can hire six people at $25/hour
for 5 hours each (two shifts) to man the station and count the
ballots afterwards, and you've spent $750, some of which you recover
in the form of income tax. :-)
Now how many voting machines would such a polling station require? And can
you buy a super-de-duper-de-luxe voting machine for $750?
--
David.
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