Let the Counting begin

This is a continuation of yesterday's blip, just as this day (night) was a continuation of the previous day....
This is really an account of the long and careful procedure we follow to count the votes. It seems long-winded but it does ensure that the elections are honest, and that if you want to do a recount a few months later, or even 20 years later, that is possible. You don't have to read it!
We lifted the lid off the ballot box at about 9:30 in the evening and started counting the votes in the national election.
First we go through the register and count the votes cast in the day, then we count the envelopes in the ballot box. Then we  open all the envelopes and take out the voting slips and we count them. Hopefully all these numbers are the same and in any case they are written onto a special form.
Then we separate the papers into piles representing the different political parties + blank votes + spoiled ballots, + a pile of "other problems", such as two papers in one envelope. All the piles are counted and the numbers tallied. The total should be the same as the previous ones. All those numbers are written onto the form. Each party's ballots are placed in a transparent envelope which is sealed and signed by two of us. All these envelopes are placed in a larger transparent envelope, together with the form (signed by two of us) giving the totals of each count. The big envelope is sealed and signed by two of us. The numbers are phoned in to a centre.  Then we move on to the local council and repeat the whole procedure. Finally we do it all again a third time for the County Council votes.
As the registered voting officers only we can count but the whole count is open to the public if they want to sit and watch us count.
At around 3:30 in the morning all these sealed envelopes and forms are delivered to the town hall.
Later in the week all these votes will be counted twice more and the spoiled ballots and problem votes will be considered by professionals.
Everything is then archived, in case future generations want to do a recount.
Democracy needs to be open and transparent and you need a paper trail that can be followed again and again if necessary.
Electronic voting machines?  No thanks!