A story from Slovenia: Mayoral elections were held last Sunday. In the town of Izola both of the candidates received 4210 votes after the first count. Then two of the ballots first said to be invalid were added to one of the candidates and the final result is 4212 vs. 4210.
- on one of the ballots no name is being checked but the voter signed his own name over one of the names of political parties. this ballot was counted as invalid at first and later counted as valid vote. - on one of the ballots the voter made two circles. one circle is made around the name of one of the candidates. another circle is made around the name of the party the other candidate belongs to. this ballot was counted as invalid at first and later counted as valid vote. - we use simple paper ballots. accoding to the law, the voter has to draw a circle around the number written before the name of the chosen candidate. however, any other ballot showing DOUBTLESS VOTER'S INTENT is valid. ballots are hand-counted. this seems to be the first time in history of the country that ballots were double-checked. there is absolutely no standard as to what is a voter's intent and what constitutes a valid vote. - the law allows the blind and handicapped voters to vote thru their assistants. one of the handicapped voters was denied the vote thru his assistant because the polling officials did not know the law. - the law does not allow a recount in any case. Now the losing candidate complained. He wants the two ballots described above to be deemed invalid and the handicapped voter to get a chance to vote. this way he would win. He also requests the recount. ---- election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info