All ballots are unfolded (if envelopes are used, then all ballots need to be taken out of the envelopes) one by one, and the counting officer makes sure that the ballot is valid.

The counting officer may call out the name of the candidate or political party for whom the ballot has been marked and hold up the ballot for all to see. If several persons are separating and counting the ballots, and identifying those that may be potentially rejected, the practice of calling out names may not be useful. It may, in fact, be more efficient to separate the ballots according to choice (without counting them), setting aside the potentially rejections, and then establish which ballots should be rejected. After the rejections are finalized, the piles of valid ballots for each candidate or party can be counted quickly.

In all cases, only counting officers should handle ballots, and it is usually the presiding officer who is entitled to make a decision on the validity of a ballot.

The advantage of showing the ballot and calling out the result of each ballot is that it allows the representatives of political parties and candidates and observers to make their own count. The disadvantage is that the process is interrupted each time a rejected ballot is discovered, which tends to make the count of valid ballots very inefficient and slow. However, transparency and credibility of the count is paramount and often outweigh the efficiency aspect in many societies.

Whichever method is used, the valid ballot papers are put in separate piles on the table: one pile per candidate or per political party, or per option (in the case of a referendum).

The ballots should be examined in such a way as to permit observers, representatives of political parties or candidates, and other persons allowed in the voting station during the counting process, to see the ballot and ensure that it is appropriately separated according to choice. They should have controlled access to contents of sorted ballots, but are generally not allowed to handle official election material.

If political party or candidate representatives do not agree with the decision of the counting officer, they can make official objections. These objections may form the basis of a further challenge to the overall results.

While transparency of the process is important, there should be proper controls on the movement of ballots to ensure that the integrity of the count is not compromised.