elections work - and I'm sure there's a lot of variation between jurisdiction - but I'm assuming that basically the Democrats send half of the poll officials and the Republicans send the other half, and there's the assumption that they will keep each other honest." Essentially, yes. Not all positions in every jurisdiction are subject to this balancing act. "In America, there is also a deeply entrenched culture of partisanship that pervades every part of government. (Don't some places still elect judges?!)" Judicial ballots in many jurisdictions are non-partisan. Judges elected by legislature or appointed are generally subject to various political litmus tests. Yes, we use a proportional system for (most) houses of both the Commonwealth and State governments. This means that if there are 3 parties (most elections we have 2 major parties, 2/3/4 minor parties, plus independants) and I really want to vote for an independant, BUT if she doesn't win I want $BIG_PARTY_A to win rather than $BIG_PARTY_B, then I can do exactly that. Neatly avoids the system problem America has where choosing the candidate you really want (Independant) means your preferred Democrat / Republican doesn't get a vote at all. Despite this system, lower house election results are normally decided same day, with perhaps one in five not being declared until the next day (Sunday). This delay doesn't seem to impact private or government business unduly. Note that the upper houses in Australia use a combination of those, where the country is divided into electorates that