Charles Fiterman's questions

[New Democracy]

Dear Charles Fiterman,

     I sent your questions on UK elections to David Marsay. Below is his
answers.

Donald
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  ---------- Forwarded Letter -----------
Authenticated sender is <djmarsay at taz.dra.hmg.gb>
From: "David Marsay" <djmarsay at dera.gov.uk>
To: donald at mich.com (New Democracy)
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 14:15:53 +0000
MIME-Version: 1.0
Subject: Re: Questions on UK elections
Reply-To: djmarsay at dera.gov.uk
Priority: normal

I guess you've had a response by now, so I'll be brief.

My answer is for England. Northern Ireland is different. I'm not sure
about Wales or Scotland.

> How automated are your systems? What do they look like?

We have one ballot paper per election. Using one election at a time.
The most I can recall is 3.

For general elections we put an X in the box against our chosen
candidate.  If multiple candidates are to be elected (e.g., a local
council) then we have a quota of Xs, 1 per 'slot'.

Papers are counted manually at a central point. For single-'slot'
elections they are put into piles. I do not know about multi-'slot'
elections, but as far as I know they have small electorates.

I think the polls close about 9. Counting takes about 2 to 12 hours.

There have been problems with very close elections and multiple
recounts, but I don't know what the record is.

People generally have confidence in this part of the system. You will
see that UK thinking on election counting is conditioned by the
technology used!
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Sorry folks, but apparently I have to do this. :-(
The views expressed above are entirely those of the writer
and do not represent the views, policy or understanding of
any other person or official body.