From a simple showing of hands, or standing in front of a chosen candidate, vote counting went to secret paper ballots. Current trends in vote counting are towards secrecy, complexity (for reasons of accuracy and representation), electronic options, and rapid transmission of results.
The development in vote counting naturally follows voting procedures and techniques. Before the paper ballot, other means were used. In ancient Greece pieces of ceramic, ostraka, were used. Today, voters in the Gambia use marbles to indicate their choice of candidate. However, the paper ballot is most common these days, although technical means such as voting machines are used in some legislation. During recent decades, technical support for vote counting has made rapid progress.
The manual count remains the most common and widespread method of vote counting. However, depending on the general level of development, calculators or computers are used to calculate results, and computers are used for the distribution of seats. For a discussion of machine-assisted vote counting, see Application of Technology.
