In my part of Canada, I go to my polling place with my voters card or ID, they cross my name off the list and hand me a ballot (or ballots - during our civic elections, we elect school boards as well as city council.) I take my ballot into the booth, where one of the technological marvels of humankinds tenure on this bright blue planet sits, waiting for me to unleash its wondrous power. I speak of course, of the pencil. The candidates names are on the left, a circle to the right of the name. I recall that the names and circles are in alternating black and white bands, like they have on mileage charts on maps, if you get my drift. I select my choice of candidates by marking an 'x' in the appropriate circle. I then fold the ballot, and place it in the ballot box, which is outside of the booth. What happens to it after that is not clear to me. I assume it gets counted, but my candidates don't usually win, so who knows? I assume the ballots are hand-counted on a riding by riding basis, and tallied. One of the concerns at my end of the nation is that the bulk of the population (ergo, most of the Parliamentary seats)is in Ontario, two or three time-zones away, so often the outcome is decided before the polls close on the west side of the country. It would seem that the 'X' ballot is less prone to the problems we're seeing in the U.S.
"If you can mark an 'X', you're my kind of people."

Bardford