Original Question:
What is the best way to manually count ballot papers in block vote (BV) systems?
With first-past-the-post systems, one can easily pile the ballots for each candidate, and then tally the totals. Where there is more than one vote recorded on ballot papers, some kind of tallying system seems unavoidable. What techniques are used in counting block vote ballots elsewhere?
Introduction
“Vote counting is one of the most crucial stages in the election process. Failure to complete the count and transmit results in a quick, transparent and accurate manner can jeopardize public confidence in the elections and will directly affect whether candidates and political parties accept the final results.” (The ACE Encyclopedia)
Block Voting (BV) belongs to the “family” of plurality / majority Electoral Systems (The other two big “families” being proportional, or mixed Electoral Systems) and is in fact a first-past-the-post (FPTP) system with the difference that it occurs in multi-member districts with voters having as many votes as there are positions to be filled. In a five-member constituency for example, the five candidates with the largest number of votes are elected, regardless of the actual percentage level of votes they receive. In BV systems, voters are usually free to vote for individual candidates regardless of party affiliation, but they are not entitled to cast the same vote more than once. Voters are also most often free to not use all the votes they are entitled to if they like. (In other words, in the above case of five seats, the voter could choose to only vote for three candidates for example and leaving the remaining two votes empty).
The rationale for using BV is generally known to be the possibility to provide a good opportunity to retain voters' ability to vote for individuals while at the same time increasing the role of political parties