Receiving Results from Several Counting Centres

The national office of the electoral management body receives the interim results directly from the counting centres.

The person responsible for combining results from the counting centres will directly transmit the progress reports for each electoral district, broken down by voting station, and the cumulative statement of the vote for the counting centre directly to the national office of the electoral management body. For greatest efficiency, all counting centres are using a common software for transmitting interim results to the national centre.

If a manual system is used, the staff responsible for the incoming results should first make a quick quality control check in order to verify if the results make sense or not, for example, whether or not the totals are correct, and all the data is received.

Most national-level results centres are computerized and therefore efforts are made to pre-load the results system with software containing mathematical formula checks, logical inconsistencies and triggers for extreme or unusual results based on historical electoral data.

A more exhaustive quality control procedure, for each electoral district and voting station, will be done when the final official results are compiled. Some electoral districts might need more attention than others, especially those that are the subject of intense political campaign activities, or those with a higher degree of administrative difficulties, such as a very high concentration of registered voters (the core of a large city, for example). On election day, these electoral districts might need to be monitored more closely by the national electoral management body.

If a country is divided into several time zones, the results will come in at different times of the day at the national level (depending on the closing hour of the election), and the required staff should be carefully scheduled to be available when needed.

In case of an emergency, the head office of the electoral management body should always be able to reach their local offices, especially when results are coming in. In most cases, both a primary and secondary number (often landline and a mobile phone number) need to be secured and tested prior to Election Day. The phone number should not be the same one used to call in interim results. 

Special Ballot Counts, Mobile and Advance Voting Counts

Special ballots are usually returned to the head office of the electoral management body where a special counting centre is established. These results will then be reported to the central collection point separately, as in all other counting centres.

Depending on the rules of the system used and the logistics in place, the ballots returned by mail might be accepted only a set number of days prior to election day or right up until election day itself. If special ballots are accepted right until Election Day, counting procedures should be designed so the publication of results will not be delayed.

Depending on the deadline given to return the special ballots, the counting may start before Election Day, at the beginning of Election Day, or at the close of voting on Election Day.

However, counting these ballots may take a long time depending on the volume of ballots to process and the procedures used.

Counting special ballots before Election Day is common and generally recommended, but special security is necessary to ensure the results are released along with the results of ordinary elections.

The ballot boxes for advance voting are safely kept at the counting centre until the closing of ordinary voting on Election Day. The counting process for these ballots starts at the same time as for the ordinary voting and are virtually identical to the ones used for counting the votes of ordinary votes.

The counting of votes from mobile voting stations may take place at the counting centre and ballots are counted as any other ballots. These ballots should not be counted until the regular closing time of voting on Election Day.

For all cases - advance votes, special votes, mobile voting stations, etc. - if the count takes place a few days prior to Election Day, representatives of political parties and candidates and observers should be present for the counting.

For the purposes of creating separate verification and audit trails and for properly reporting the results of advance voting, mobile voting stations, and special votes, these unique voting procedures should not be confused with ordinary elections. The difference should be made very clear with a distinctive statement of the vote forms used for these types of ballots.