How to Count High School Election Votes

It is a good idea to check students' names off when they cast their ballot to prevent duplicates.

In January 2011, a group of concerned voters organized a group of commissioners to hand count the ballots of the contested Columbia County, N.Y. election. Hand counting the ballots, in the eyes of the voters, was the only way to ensure that accuracy and accountability could be achieved. In your high school election, you should approach the issue with a similar rigor, making sure that all of the votes are counted fairly and equally.

Instructions

1. Organize a group of people into groups to count the ballots. You shouldn't have friends or cliques in certain groups together. Numbering people off is a good way to ensure that the groups are a random mix of people.

2. Give an equal portion of the ballots to each group.

3. Instruct the groups to count the ballots carefully. A member should pull out the ballot and then declare who it is for. Another member should write a tally mark next to the individual's name on a piece of paper.

4. Gather all of the ballots from the respective groups, but do not combine them into one big pile.

5. Give each group a different pile of ballots to count. This way, you can make sure each pile of ballots is counted twice, which will make your tally more accurate.

6. Add the groups of ballots up in order to get your total number of votes in the election.

Tips & Warnings

• Group sizes will ideally be two to five people, although you may want to have bigger groups if you have a lot of ballots.

References

• WheresThePaper.org: To Hand-count votes on Paper Ballots
• Times Union: Hand count votes to reduce error