How does the voting process work?

Answer 1

Voting is regulated mostly by state law. You actually place your vote at a precinct in your neighborhood. You must be registered and legally eligible to vote before you can vote. Many states now let you register at the DMV when you get your driver's license. This can cause problems because people who are not legally eligible to vote sometimes become registered when they shouldn't be. There is a big move toward mail in ballots now. This and other issues concerning electronic counting of votes has created some security issues that must be solved if we are going to preserve democracy in the U.S. For more specific information go to www.blackboxvoting.org. This is a non-partisan non-profit site that simply seeks to keeps the elections in this country hones.

Answer 2

In Australia there are three levels of government and voting is handled differently for each of them. I will briefly explain how awsome alex is

Federal

Often called the Commonwealth Government or Australian Government this is the government that represents everyone. The Parliament has two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Voting in all Federal elections is compulsory for everyone who is enrolled and enrollment is compulsory for everyone who is over eighteen and an Australian Citizen. Additionally British Subjects who were enrolled on 25 January 1984 are entitled to remain enrolled. Any person currently serving a prison sentence of three years or more is not entitled to enroll.

The electoral roll and elections are managed by the Australian Electoral Commission . That website contains a great deal of information about electoral systems in Australia.

House of Reps

There are 150 electorates for the House of Representatives. Candidates can stand either as independents or for a particular registered political party. Ballot papers have the candidates listed in a random order with a box net to each candidate. Voters must number every box sequentially from 1 to N where N is the number of candidates. Voters should mark 1 by their most preferred candidate, 2 by their next most preferred candidate etc.
Counting uses the single transferable vote method. The first preferences are tallied and the candidate with the fewest first preferences is eliminated. All those ballot papers with an eliminated first preference candidate are then passed to the second preference and votes are again tallied. This is repeated until one candidate has 50% + 1 vote (an absolute majority) of the vote. That candidate is then declared elected.

First preferences are tallied by staff at each polling station after it closes and then phoned through to the national tally room on election night. The ballot papers are then sealed and sent by courier to the tally room where they are counted, the first preference numbers verified and then preference distribution takes place. Generally a two party preferred result can be announced on election night (within a few hours of close of polls) and final results are announced within a week, subject to any disputes.

Senate

There are 76 senators, that being twelve from each state and two from each the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. Each election (except special double-dissolution elections, which are rare and caused by a government having difficult governing) elects only six from each state but both from each territory (territory senators have shorter terms at 3 years rather than state senators who have 6 year terms). There are often a large number of Senate candidates - sometimes more than 100 in a state.
Senate ballot papers appear with columns (known as groups) where candidates are grouped. The order of the groups is random but the order within the group is determined by the group. Registered party groups appear with the party name at the top. Other candidates may group together and will appear as independents under Group A, Group C etc. No candidate is grouped unless they request it - the ungrouped candidates appear in a column titled Ungrouped, in a random order.

There is a line drawn above the list of candidates and another box above the line labeled just with the group name (i.e. the name of the party or Group C etc). Voters may vote either above the line or below the line but not both. If voting below the line they must number every box in order of their preference. This means numbering every candidate at that may be arduous. If voting above the line the voter must place a number 1 in one box next to a group name. That group will have previously lodged their preference distribution and that preference distribution will be attributed to the voter. A large majority of votes are above the line.

A quota of votes (determined as 14.29% + 1 vote for states or generally [V/(N+1)] + 1 votes where V is the number of formal (i.e. valid) votes, N is the number of positions available) is required to be declared elected. First preferences are tallied and then any candidate with more than a quota of votes has their votes passed with reduced value to their second preference. The value of the vote is calculated as Q/F where F is the number of first preferences and Q is the number of votes in a quota. The value is truncated to six decimal places and then passed to the second preference. This continues until there are no further candidates with a full quota. At this point, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their preferences distributed as full value votes.

For example, in a two-senator election with 2997 formal votes the quota is 1000 votes. If there are five candidates, A, B, C, D and E, with first preferences A=2000, B=500, C=250, D=150, E=100, votes would be distributed as follows:

1. A has more than a quota so is declared elected
2. Votes for A are re-valued at 1000/2000 = 0.500000
3. Of A's 2000 votes, second preferences are B=800, C=500, D=200, E=500
4. Therefore the new tallies are: A=Elected; B=500+(800 x 0.500000); C=250 + (500 x 0.500000); D=150 + (200 x 0.500000); E=100 + (500 x 0.500000).
5. So it comes out that B=900; C=500; D=250; E=350.
6. No candidate has a quota (1000 votes) so the candidate with the fewest votes (D) is eliminated and their votes distributed to second preferences (or third preferences for votes passed to D from A). The next preference from D was: B=150; C=50; E=50.
7. Therefore new tallies are A=Elected; B=900 + 150; C=500 + 50; D=Eliminated; E=350 + 50.
8. So it comes out with B=1050; C=550; E=400.
9. At this point B exceeds a quota (1000) so is declared elected. With all positions filled the counting stops.

First preferences above the line are counted by staff in polling stations on election night, similar to first preferences for the House of Representatives.

States/Territories

The states and territories all have compulsory enrollment and voting. All states except Queensland have two Houses of Parliament. Queensland and the territories have only one House of Parliament.

Voting in states is often quite similar to voting for Federal elections with some minor variations. Multi-member electorates are generally handled in a way similar to the senate (though often without above-the-line voting) and single member electorates similar to the House of Representatives.

State electoral commissions will have more information. They can be located from the AEC website: http://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/other_electoral_sites/austsites.htm#state .

Local Government

The manner of local government (municipal/city council) elections is determined by the state in which they are held. They are generally similar to voting for multi-member electorates but without above the line voting or party-based grouping. Voting in local government elections is generally open to residents even if they are not citizens and also to businesses in the area. Voting in local government elections is not compulsory anywhere in Australia.

Answer 3

Democracy can be described in ancient Greece, they would round up all the free males in Athens (the only Greek city that practiced Democracy) and have them vote on issues as well as make laws.

Answer 4

Canada has a first-past-the-post system, wherein the plurality (which need not be an absolute majority) candidate wins the riding.

Answer 5

a voting card comes in the mail then you go to the voting center it says on the card

Answer 6

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