How to Count Thousands

of Paper Ballots by Hand

by John Washburn

http://www.washburnresearch.org/HandCountingPaperBallots.htm

August 17, 2005

Introduction

A growing number of election integrity advocates and activists are drawn inexorably to the conclusion the best system available is paper ballots marked by the elector and counted by hand. This system is transparent, understandable, reliable, and provides for recounting in the event of an election dispute. The single greatest objection presented by vendors of election machinery is that hand counting thousands of ballots would be prohibitively time consuming and prohibitively expensive. Neither claim withstands scrutiny. This paper describes how to efficiently count ballots by hand with the aid of a good counting scale.

Counting Scales

During the late 1970’s and early 1980’s a new technology, the counting scale, was introduced to inventory control systems and warehouses around the world. A counting scale is a sensitive scale with a microprocessor and enough programming to convert an arbitrary weight from the scale sensor into a piece count on the front display. The scale used at your local grocery store to calculate the cost of your produce or meat is a kind of counting scale which calculates dollars instead of piece counts. To count the number of nuts or bolts in a display bin, hardware stores routinely use a counting scale. The scale is programmed by carefully counting out a sample of the bolts to be counted; e.g. 10 bolts. The more bolts in the hand-counted sample the more accurately the scale can convert weights into piece counts. The scale is then told how many bolts are on the scale weighing plate. From the weight and number entered, the scale can calculate the weight of a single piece. For example if the scale detects 2.15 pounds and the user enters 10 as the piece count, the scale internally calculates the figure of 0.215 pounds per bolt. Once this initial programming is done, the scale will correctly read 123.20 pounds as 573 bolts and 175.655 pounds as 817 bolts. Of course any material on the scale which weights 123.20 pounds will be interpreted by the scale to be 573 bolts. The programming on of the scale is very simple, direct and robust.

Counting Ballots

For the example election in this paper the author has selected the November 2, 2004 election in the Village of Brown Deer, Wisconsin. This election and polling location was selected because it had the most number of ballots of any polling place in the State of Wisconsin for the November 2, 2004 Presidential election. There were 7080 ballots cast in the Village of Brown Deer and the ballot contained 10 partisan elections. This is the most extreme reporting location for any of the last 5 elections in Wisconsin. The naïve approach to counting these 7080 ballots by hand is to examine each ballot in turn and transfer the votes recorded on the ballot to a tally sheet for each of the 10 elections. This method requires about 1 minute per ballot. For the Village of Brown Deer this would be 7000 man-minutes of counting or 117 man-hours. With 34 people the ballots could be counted in 3 hours and 45 minutes. This approach clearly is unfeasible for a count effort of the size of Brown Deer.

Here is a more efficient approach.

Before the polls close (preferably at the beginning of the day) spend 1 hour programming the scale by

Carefully counting out 250 blank ballots, The simplest way is:

i. 5 people each count out 5 blank ballots,

ii. Collect the 25 ballots into a stack of 25.

iii. Repeat 10 times. This will produce 10 stacks of 25 ballots each

iv. No each of the 5 people takes 2 stacks and verifies each contains exactly 25 ballots.

v. Viola 250 ballots counted. For testing sake lay the stakes crosswise so groups of 25 are can easily and accurately be removed from the scale as part of step d.

Weigh the hand-counted stack of 250 ballots and
Inform the scale of the number of ballots in the stack is 250.
Verify the scales calibration and programming:

i. Remove and re-add various groups of 25 ballots to and from scale. Verify each time the number displayed by the scale is the correct ballot count.

ii. Add and remove single ballots, pairs of ballots and groups of 5 ballots. Verify each time the number displayed by the scale is the correct ballot count.

In Wisconsin there were the most candidates (7) for the race of US President. Because of this 9 empty boxes will be needed to sort ballots by candidate. These boxes would be the same boxes as for reams of 8.5x11 inch paper. Before the election, the boxes should be labeled 1-7, an eighth box should be labeled Write-In, and a ninth box should be labeled NVC (for no vote cast).
In Wisconsin there were 5 party preferences available. Because of this 5 additional, empty boxes will be needed in order to sort ballots by party preference. These boxes would be the same boxes as for reams of 8.5x11 inch paper. Before the election, the boxes should be labeled with the party names: Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Constitution, and Wisconsin Green.
After the polls close Wisconsin election law chapter 7.51(2)(a) requires the 2 poll list be reconciled. The poll list determines the number of ballots distributed to electors (absentee, registered, or same-day registrants) during day. Once the number of ballots distributed is determined it is recorded on the inspectors statement as per Wisconsin chapter 7.51(2)(b) and 7.51(4). I very much like the ballot and stub system described in http://www.wheresthepaper.org/CountPaperBallots.htm as this give 3 number to reconcile; The poll list the stubs and the number ballots actually in the ballot box. The staples and serialized stubs make accurate record keeping easy and efficient.
Without sorting, remove the ballots from the ballot box and arrange the ballots into convenient stacks for weighing. The only sorting may be to stack the ballots in a uniform way; e.g. face up and right-side up.
Weigh all the ballots with the counting scale. This will provide a count of all the ballots in the ballot box. The number of ballots in the ballots box must be equal to the number of ballots distributed to electors during the day. If the numbers are different the method to reconcile the numbers is provided in Wisconsin chapter 7.51(2)(b) through 7.51(2)(e).

To verify the scales programming from the morning is still correct, count out 50 ballots in the manner described above. Verify the scale correctly report this as 50 ballots.
Add 1 ballot to the stack. Verify the scale correctly report this as 51 ballots.
Remove 2 ballots. Verify the scale correctly report this as 49 ballots.
Count out an additional stack of 50 ballots in the manner described above. Add these 50 ballots to the scale. Verify the scale correctly report this as 99 ballots.

Once the number of ballots in the box and number of ballots distributed to electors agree, tallying the votes can begin in earnest.
Examine every ballot and sort the ballots into 4 piles: Ballots with at least one write-in, ballots with a party preference selected, spoiled ballots and all other ballots. These stacks are the Write-in stack, the Party Preference stack, the Spoiled Stack and the main stack; respectively. If the ballot has both party preference and a write-in, the ballot should be included in the Party Preference stack.
Secure the spoiled ballots and document the reason for spoilage. Record the number of spoiled ballots and ignore the Spoiled stack from this point forward. The Spoiled stack is set aside as fully counted.
The Party Preference ballots are further sorted by each of the party preferences.
At this point the election officials have 7 stacks of ballots: Write-ins, 5 Party Preference stacks and the very large Main Stack.
Tally the votes in the party preference stacks

Within each party preference stack separate out ballots with only a single mark, party preference, and those ballots with a party preference mark and some other mark (write-in or candidate vote) on them.
The single-marked, party-preference ballots are counted via weighing. The vote tallies for these ballots are recorded for each candidate fielded by that party.
The party-preference ballots with more than a single mark are counted tallied by hand. The vote tallies for these ballots are recorded for each candidate fielded by that party except for the party candidate where write-in or a mark for a candidate from another party appears.
At this point all the votes recorded on ballots with a party preference have been tallied and recorded. The Party Preferences stacks are then set aside as fully counted.

For the office of president sort the ballots in the main stack are into boxes by candidate. Because of the ballot order in Wisconsin for the November 2, 2004 election, the ballots of the main stack are sorted as follows:

John Kerry, box number 1,
George Bush, Box number 2
Michael Badnarik, box number 3
David Cobb, Box number 4
Ralph Nader, Box number 5
James Harris, Box number 6
Walter F. Brown, Box number 7
Write-in
No Vote cast for US President

Once the main stack of ballots is sorted into 8 smaller stacks by candidate, the sorting operation is checked for errors. The ballots in each box are formed into neat stacks. The stacks are then rifled like a deck of playing cards to insure only ballots for only the proper candidate are in the box. The effect will similar to watching flip animation. If the ballots are all marked for the same candidate, the “animation” is still. If there is a ballot in the wrong stack, the “animation” will noticeably jump. If so, find the mis-sorted ballot and sort properly.
Once the election officials are confident each stack contains only ballots with votes cast for a single candidate, each candidate stack is counted by weighing the stack of ballots on the counting scale. The number of votes for each candidate provided by the counting scale is recorded on the official tally sheet. Record the number of ballots with NVC (no vote cast) as well.
The ballots from the main stack are removed from the boxes. It would be best to preserve the 8 groups of ballots intact, as many people vote largely along party lines. Thus, the stack of ballots with Kerry votes is likely to be dominated by votes for Russ Feingold for US Senator.
Next the Write-in stack is sorted in the same manner among the 9 boxes. The ballots from the Write-in stack can be counted via weighting except for the ballots with a write-in vote for US President. Record the number of ballots with NVC (no vote cast) as well.
Confirm every vote for president on every ballot in the ballot box was counted. The number of votes for each candidate, the number of NVC ballots and the number of written-in candidates must equal the number of unspoiled ballots in the ballot box. If not, repeat steps 13-18 until everything reconciles.
Repeat steps 13 through 18 for each of the remaining elections on the ballot: US Senate, US House, State Senate, State Assembly, District Attorney, County Treasurer, County Clerk, County Circuit Court Clerk, and County Registrar of Deeds.

The use of the counting scale divides the work between humans and computers along the strengths of each. People are very good at sorting items and pattern recognition. The computer is good at measuring weight and calculating the number of ballots from the weight.

Cost of hand Counting

With the procedure above, how much time and money will be spent on election night counting the ballots? Here is a breakdown of the costs and time involved:

Number of Ballots	7080
Number of elections	10
Maximum number of candidates	7
Number of Party Preferences	5

Time to program counting scale	1	hour
Time to examine a single ballot for a write-in and/or a party preference	5	Seconds	9.833	Man hours for all 7080 ballots
Percentage of party preference ballots	30%
Time to sort a single party preference ballot as having 1 or more marks	5	Seconds	2.950	Man hours for all 2124 party-preference ballots
Time to weigh/count single marked ballots	90	seconds / Party preference	0.125	Man hours for all 5 parties

Number of write-in ballots	3%
Time to record the write-in entries from a single ballot	30	seconds	1.770	Man hours for all 212 ballots with write-ins

Time to sort a single ballot from the Main stack and transfer the ballot to the proper box by candidate	3	seconds	3.953	Man hours / race
Time to weigh and record each candidate-sorted stack present in a box	90	seconds / stack	0.225	Man hours / race
Time to sort a single ballot from the Write-in stack by candidate	3	seconds	0.177	Man hours / race
Time to weigh and record each sorted stack from the write-in stack	90	seconds / stack	0.225	Man hours / race
Total time to count a single race on the ballot			4.580	Man hours

Total time to hand count all ballots. 10*4.580 man hours for the 10 races and 14.7 man hours for other activities	61.48	Man-hours
Number of election workers	15	People
Pay for election workers	$15	per hour
Estimated time to complete the hand count of Brown Deer	4.031889	hours
Cost to count ballots by hand	$922.18

This means the cost is $1000 per election. With 15 poll workers beginning at 8:00 pm the elections of all 10 races will be completed by 1 am Wednesday morning.

Cost of Equipment

A good counting scale for counting ballots would need to be a high capacity and high sensitivity scale. Capacity is the number of pounds of material can be weight at 1 time. Sensitivity is smallest weight which the scale can distinguish. Such a counting scale from Mettler-Toledo, Rice Lake Weighing Systems, Sterling Scale Company, or Fairbanks Scales will cost approximately $1600 to purchase and require an annual calibration for about $300 dollars.

See: the Rice Lake Weighing Systems quote: http://www.washburnresearch.org/archive/HandCountingBallots/DIGI_DC-200300.pdf for a Digi by RLWS

See: the Mettler-Toledo quote: http://www.washburnresearch.org/archive/HandCountingBallots/MettlerToledo_jmm20050805_1.pdf for an MT Series 4 counting scale.

This money will buy a counting scale with a capacity of 50 to 70 pounds and a sensitivity of 0.005 pounds (2 grams). A single 8.5”x11” sheet of 80 pound card-stock weighs 8 grams. A ballot printed on heavier card stock or on a larger size would weigh more. Thus the ballot is well above the readability of the scale and is able to distinguish differences of even a single ballot.

The programming required for each election is 1 hour of time and is included in the $1000 dollars cited above. Also since counting scales are designed for use in an industrial setting and for continual use, a good counting scale should prove more durable than most electronic voting systems.

Hand counting paper ballots with the aid of an excellent counting scale is a voting system which has:

1. Lower equipment acquisition costs,

2. Lower equipment maintenance costs

3. Lower election administration costs per election

MS Excel XP spread sheet used to calculate the costs in this paper. Now you can do your own estimating and see for yourself how little hand counting can cost.

MS WORD XP
PDF

Zip Archive of each version of this document plus the spread sheet