Voting: Round One

So, the French are voting today.

After lunch, I tagged along with Pascal and Maurice to check out the action.

The process? Eye-opening!

At the mayor's office in the village, there was a long table with small piles of paper, printed with the name of each candidate. The voter picked as many names as they wanted, since only choosing one would indicate who they were voting for, and there were bystanders (the people in charge as well as other voters).

Next, there was a basket with empty envelopes.

The voter stepped into the curtained booth and cast his/her vote by placing their candidate's name in said envelope. The other names were left in the voting booth.

The voter exited the booth and dropped the envelope in the collection bin.

At 6 p.m. tonight, the totals are tallied BY HAND and re-tallied, BY HAND, before being reported to someone official.

Pros: a reasonable amount of accuracy (at least for a village of 300).
Cons: paper- and labor-intensive.