[toyg]

>in Australia, it has about the best system possible [...] in terms of verifying the count: an AEC official does the counting, and the major parties volunteer scrutineers to challenge ambiguous voting slips

That's actually how it works in Italy as well: each poll station has an official "commission" and party-nominated "observers" who can challenge slip by slip. It's probably the fairest system one can devise, although it relies on political activism (a party without enough volunteers to cover all poll stations will likely miss out votes here and there, although this might be irrelevant depending on how winners are determined).

[wavegeek]

Correct. I have done scrutineering in Australian elections. It is fun as you get the local results before anyone else. Also you see the comments people write on the papers

Eg Youse bastards r al liers!