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From what you have said, it is all done behind the scenes: you register directly with the government, you get a ballot, you mail it in, you get the results.  Don't misunderstand - it sounds incredibly efficient.  I'm jealous.  But I do enjoy that the public here is encouraged to participate at every little step of the process: from registering voters to being election judges, even if it does result in a lot more incompetence and therefore more room for error.  Its probably a different mentality.  I think if we put our government totally in charge of their own elections, we would have even less trust in the system than we have now.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
by poemless on Fri Oct 31st, 2008 at 02:13:25 PM EST
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The citizens are involved in the vote counting and suprevising the vote counting. We have vote-count duty like you have jury duty.
by Fran on Fri Oct 31st, 2008 at 02:16:06 PM EST
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That's awesome.

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
by poemless on Fri Oct 31st, 2008 at 02:23:23 PM EST
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Not only that, but (in France) everyone can come in and participate in the counting. Except people who are professional prestidigitators. (and that's actual law)

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Fri Oct 31st, 2008 at 06:28:24 PM EST
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Same in Germany. It is all perfectly simple, open and transparent. You receive a notification some weeks before the election day, so you have time to assert your right to vote.

Alas, they introduced machine-voting in some constituencies for no good reason, it appears; there have been no reports of consistent vote-flipping in one direction so far. These days it has been tried before the Federal Constitutional Court. The case centres on the lack of transparency, visibility, participation; it is not without merits nor chances.

by Humbug (mailklammeraffeschultedivisstrackepunktde) on Fri Oct 31st, 2008 at 07:12:35 PM EST
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Keep in mind that the Swiss vote at least four times a year. Direct democracy and all that. So the campaigning is not as hopped up as the US version, but much more low key. In addition to the people in the village squares, there are also public poster boards in strategic locations where parties get allocated space. I don't know by what method, but I would assume based on how many votes they got the last round? Anyway, these are poster boards exclusively used for election purposes, there is never anything else there. The posters are usually for yes/no on various referendum questions, and for persons in the case where there is also elected positions up. The voting booklet sent out includes the text of all the questions, as well as the opinions on the questions of 'all' parties and pressure groups (again, I don't know how these groups are selected).  
by someone (s0me1smail(a)gmail(d)com) on Mon Nov 3rd, 2008 at 09:22:22 AM EST
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