What if they all existed in a sleek little electronic machine?

An electronic machine makes a zapping-sound and a bolt of green lighting appears in the background.

Counting got under way at 8am yesterday, tallying the ballots of an estimated 600 million voters, recorded on electronic machines at 1.5 million polling booths.

Many councils had said they would check 100 per cent using the new electronic machines.

Amid charges that the electronic machines were rigged, the monitors will be checking the results from the machines against the paper ballots to make sure there are no major discrepancies.