Italian Elections — A Role Model for US Elections

Guest post by Joe Hoft at JoeHoft.com – republished with permission.

When it comes to elections, the US should do it like the Italians.

Italy is known for some of the world’s greatest art, food, and people. It is therefore no surprise that their elections are a role model for the world.

As the US looks at ways to revamp its elections, Italian elections can serve as a starting point.

Italian Guya Mariani shares that Italian elections are simple and secure.

Guya Mariani on Italian elections being simple and secure@guyamariani pic.twitter.com/jZh5WrzBva

— Joe Hoft (@realJoeHoft) March 29, 2025

Guya Mariani discusses how simple it is to vote in Italy. Elections take place at local schools and lines are short. Here is Mariani’s discussion of the process:

The election process in Italy is very simple and secure. Votes are cast at local schools and there are usually very short lines. Guya Mariani discusses how simple it is to then vote in Italy. pic.twitter.com/pFJIlxoXIl

— Joe Hoft (@realJoeHoft) March 29, 2025

Mariani shared the following description of the Italian voting process:

In Italy, national elections involve a straightforward process for citizens voting at polling stations.

Italians must bring their “tessera elettorale,” a voter card issued by their municipality, along with a valid ID to their designated polling station, typically a local school closed for the occasion. Voting usually spans two days—Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday—to accommodate schedules. At the polling station, voters enter a classroom where booths are set up for privacy.

Before voting, poll workers verify the voter’s identity, record their participation by marking the tessera elettorale and a ledger by hand, and retain the ID temporarily. Voters then use a special indelible pencil to mark their choice on a pre-printed, watermarked “scheda elettorale” (ballot paper), fold it to conceal the vote, and deposit it into a centrally placed cardboard ballot box visible to all.

The voting process is designed for transparency and security. After marking their ballot in the booth, voters exit and place the folded ballot into the box themselves, ensuring no interference.

Once voting concludes (typically Sunday at 11 p.m.), the poll workers—comprising a president, a secretary, and scrutineers, often with party representatives present as witnesses—begin counting the votes immediately in the same classroom.

The ballot box is opened publicly, and each ballot is unfolded, inspected, and tallied by hand. This open process allows witnesses, including candidate or party representatives, to observe and ensure accuracy, with invalid votes (e.g., those with extra markings) set aside after scrutiny.

After the count, the results are meticulously recorded and communicated to the central national registry. The polling station president compiles an official summary of the vote totals, signed by the poll workers and stamped with the station’s unique seal. One copy of this summary, along with all ballots (valid, invalid, and unused), is sent to the local courthouse for safekeeping and potential recounts, while another is delivered to the municipal electoral office. From there, the municipality aggregates the data from all its polling stations and transmits it to the Ministry of the Interior’s Central Directorate for Electoral Services, which oversees the national tally.

(When the vote totals are announced to the public, they also include the number of “white ballots”—those left blank—which are considered a form of protest vote).

This hierarchical reporting ensures that results are verified at multiple levels before being finalized and announced, maintaining a transparent chain of custody from the classroom to the national level.

Mariani goes on to share that in Europe the way they cheat is after the election when groups that win an election are prevented from leading the country because the losing parties join forces to keep the most popular party from power.

Also, Mariani makes a point to share that in Italy the local elections abide by federal laws. There are some allowances for how elections are performed locally, but because elections affect the country as a whole, elections must comply with federal laws. (In the US federal laws like the HAVA Act are virtually ignored in some circumstances.)

(In 2022 nearly 30 million Italians voted in that election. By comparison, 16 million votes were counted in the 2024 election in California.)

Mariani provided this additional information on Italian elections:

Italian Elections System by Joe Ho on Scribd

Here is the entire interview with Guya Mariani regarding Italian elections and so much more:

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