More on distributed STV counting: There *is* an algorithm for STV counting that does not require that every ballot be sent to the central canvassing site, but it still does not produce local/precinct/regional results: The algorithm requires that for each iteration of counting each precinct/region send the sum of highest-preferred candidates who have not yet been excluded. The central site then aggregates the counts, tosses the loser and then sends the revised list of remaining candidates out to the precincts/regions. They then fully recount their ballots taking into account the revised list of remaining candidates and send the revised sums to the canvassing center. And round-and-round it goes until there's a winner. As you can imagine, with that kind of some-here-some-there counting it is easy to make mistakes, there can be considerable delays, and recounting and auditing are made quite difficult. --karl--