Casting a ballot and counting votes are separate stages.
A polling station first needs an orderly voting process. This includes checking eligibility, issuing ballots and safeguarding the ballot box. The helpers do not decide which party a person should support.
Counting follows the close of voting. This is the specific task sought by the question. “After” matters: helpers should not turn ballots already cast into running media tallies while voting is still under way.
The other three answers
Do not confuse counting with administrative mail, media updates or automatic help inside the booth.
They help elderly people cast their vote in the voting booth.
Old age alone does not mean someone needs help voting. Under legal conditions, a voter may choose an assistant, for example because of a disability. This is not a general duty to accompany all older voters into the booth.
They write the election notifications before the election.
Polling notifications are part of preparation by the responsible administration. Writing them is not the electoral board’s counting task asked about here.
They pass on interim results to the media.
The task is counting after voting closes. Passing running tallies to the media during voting is not what the question describes.
Permitted assistance preserves the voter’s wishes and secrecy.
A voter unable to perform the necessary actions because of a disability or inability to read may choose assistance under the applicable rules. A selected member of the electoral board may serve in that role. Assistance must follow the voter’s own wishes.
The assistant must keep what they learn about the vote confidential. The exception therefore permits neither overriding the voter nor a general claim that helpers may watch everyone in the booth.
Election assistance · Federal Returning Officer ↗Vote first, count afterwards.
Link the task to its timing: votes are counted after voting has ended.
Three words for this question
- auszählento count votes
- To count the votes cast according to election rules.
- der Wahlvorstandelectoral board
- The team administering voting in a particular polling district.
- die Hilfspersonvoting assistant
- A chosen assistant who implements only the voter’s own wishes.