Germany hand counts their ballots, results in quickly

[Igel]

37. Yeah, but think it through.

Let's say I'm a volunteer ballot counter.

I run through a list of 20 sets of votes and have a form next to me to keep some tally on. How easy is it to have my left hand slip as my right hand makes a tally mark on the other form or enters a number on a keypad?

Or maybe I'm just looking for ballot item 16 on a page and entering it--then instead of one person counting a ballot with just one option there needs to be 20 people. (And you're not going to get that many more volunteers.).

You recount just to be sure--so many places to make an error--and each recount introduces a different set of errors. Perhaps they all cancel out so you get a clean tally, perhaps they don't and you need a second round of recounting.

Now take one ballot I filled out a few years ago. Counted the things to vote for. 83.

Then there's the complexity that I can vote anywhere in the county. But the county contains a decent number of state legislative districts, judicial districts, federal House districts, along with local races. My ballot was different, quite likely, from most of those around me because I vote 15 miles from home. So my "line 19" wasn't line 19 for those around me--some of whom lived 15, 20 miles in the other direction from the polling place. Do they physically take my ballot to "my" precinct for counting? And if it's mis-sorted and sent 35 miles to the wrong counting place?

Yeah, that's not going to work. It's a nice idea until it crashes into reality in large population centers.