Now, THIS is how you run an election.

[theweaselking]

On Sunday, the Interim Placeholder Prime Minister of Canada will be calling an election.

On October 14th, Canada will vote. On paper. Counted by hand. And we'll know who won by the morning of the 15th. AND we'll have a paper record so we can recount, reliably, any time we want.

Total elapsed time from announcing the election and starting campaigning, to knowing the results: *38 days*.

I'm just sayin'.

Comments

[ryusen.livejournal.com]

NASCAR

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, Canada's Interim Placeholder Government is trying to get their election done before the Republicans get their asses completely kicked down south. They figure that the US throwing out the morons will inspire Canadians to do the same.

They're wrong, of course, because they weren't elected on the groundswell of "conservative" fuckwittery. They were elected on the grounds that they were less damaging than the NDP and Canada's *real* government needed to be punished for a few years.

[graethorne.livejournal.com]

I am SO jealous....

[sin-memoria.livejournal.com]

Population of Canada: 33,366,097 (http://www.statcan.ca/english/edu/clock/population.htm)
Population of US: 305,071,453 (http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html)

I'm not saying it's not feasible for the US to go back to paper voting, but it wouldn't be so easy for the US to do so.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Oh, please. The paper voting system Canada uses is *scalable*.

(And significantly cheaper than the voting machines, even if the voting machines weren't insecure, unsafe, untrustworthy, and built by partisan Republicans.)

[sebkha.livejournal.com]

Population of India: 1,129,866,154 (http://www.indianchild.com/population_of_india.htm).

[matgb]

IIRC, US counting is done at a county level anyway. The UK counts at primary local authority level, which is roughly the same thing.

You just get a bunch of people in a hall with a bunch of observers and they count in a systematised way until they're done, and the observers (party volunteers) report any queries to the returning officer.

Scales to as big a population as you like. Out population is about a 5th the US, India's population is 4 times the US, works just as well in both.

Of course, the superiority of a Parliamentary system in terms of stability and good governance, as well as much cheaper elections, are also part of John's point, but getting movement there would take much longer, directly elected executive offices got idealised by people who'd never seen it in action before and 300 years later you still haven't worked out the flaws.

[lirion.livejournal.com]

Yeah but how much of the US population actually vote? That should improve the scale...

(Coming from Aus, where voting is compulsory, I still have trouble wrapping my head around some of the voting issues in America)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I participated in a municipal election once where they were testing electronic voting.

After choosing my candidate on the screen, I got a paper print-out to approve. It was then deposited into the traditional ballot box should the votes need to be verified later.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Except that:
A) There are no witnesses, by definition, to an electronically tabulated ballot counting
B) the person challenging the result usually pays for the recount
C) The cheating can present but not immediately blatant (see also: the 10% change in totals in favour of Bush, in 2004, on *all* non-verified voting machines over exit polls versus the 0% change, in 2004, on all paper voting districts)

Meaning that, even *in* the *rare* case of paper backups to electronic voting machines, it's difficult to catch cheating and expensive to challenge it.

(PS: In every case of paper ballots or electronic machines with paper backups, the votes matched the exit polls. Exactly. In every case of electronic voting machines without paper backups, the results were 5-15% off versus exit polls, in favour of Bush every single time, and there were multiple incidents of "accidental" 1000% voting in favour of Bush, or of counties with 99% turnout (in favour of Bush) where the regional and national average both stuck around one third of that.

The electronic machines *cannot be trusted*. The ones with paper backups are better, and weren't obviously cheated in 2004, but they're still untrustworthy *and* cannot be adequately and safely vetted.)

[flemco.livejournal.com]

THAT'S BECAUSE THERE ARE LIKE 50 OF YOU ALL TOLD.

Jesus, just get 'em all in a supermarket parking lot and do a show of hands!

[mcpino.livejournal.com]

30 Helens agree

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

Well... 33,349,761 of us. Which is still puny by comparison.

HOWEVER.. almost all of us live within 200 km of the border. We have more land than you but... dude. It's FREEZING north of that point. The USA has a more preferable climate for our species over their whole country.

Just sayin.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

You have to remember that Americans trying to run an election are like Neanderthals trying assemble and operate a jet engine (actually 51 jet engines, all with slightly different specifications). You don't complain if some of the engines don't work. You marvel if they get to the end of the process and nobody has been sucked through a turbine.

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

I know I've been drinking, but that's one of the most amusing analogies I've heard in awhile.

[hypatiasghost.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

Lucky, lucky frozen bastards.

[iblis-kukl.livejournal.com]

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

It's not Florida or Ohio, and even if Alberta is Texas North But Rich And A Net Contributor To The Country, Texas isn't a guess the state state.

[ulitave.livejournal.com]

We git fried ice cream and chicken fried bacon. Top that with your functioning democracy, commie.

[harald387.livejournal.com]

Poutine.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

What, and rob the country of a major sporting event?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

A major sporting event that takes up two years out of every four, and then the minor leagues occupy one year out of every two remaining years?

[mhoye.livejournal.com]

It certainly helps that we have a single official administrative body whose only job is entirely to assure fair and accurate elections.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Now imagine Elections Canada run by Mike Brown (and not the astronomer Mike Brown).

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

I love our country. :)

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

Normally, I'd give you this as a win.

But said government is desperately hoping to re-entrench itself before politics to their South have an echoing effect in the North. A slam bang election that favors the people best positioned for media saturation and high-end power games pretty much means any kind of grassroots movement is boned.
...except for the Quebec Seperatists...cause those guys ar elike on PERMANENT "Go" mode.

[jerril]

ALL of our elections are "slam bang" elections as you call them. And all of our parties have been in go mode for three or four months (or six, or twelve, it's a minority government after all...) - the grassroots movement has been trying to mobilize the Liberal party to trigger the election themselves.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Everything is better if you do it with a computer. Or, actually, not.

On the other hand, ours (in Britain) take longer than that. Can you guys invade and conquer us, please?