I'm a polling official for both State and Federal Elections here - sounds very similar to UK (not surprising since we're part of the Commonwealth) but I object to being called an Earl Grey-drinking old lady! Granted, I've just celebrated my 40 th birthday...

Voting is compulsory, your name is checked off and then you head off to the voting booth. We write numbers rather than crosses next to candidates' names as we have a preferential system. Certainly nothing as modern as electronic voting. I can vouch for the fact that votes are tallied by hand - I help count them in front of scrutineers.