Ballot Boxes of the World

How elections are run in different countries, calmly explained

Anjali Raghunathan2 episodes2 min of audio47 playsEpisodic

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S1 · E2Sep 25, 20260:5928 plays Preview

Germany's Two Votes on One Ballot

German voters mark two choices, a local candidate and a party list. Anjali and a Berlin returning officer explain what each vote does, how seats are allocated, and why the Bundestag changes size.

S1 · E1Mar 8, 20261:1719 plays Members

A Million Polling Stations in Six Weeks

How India's general election moves a million polling stations through a phased schedule, from the voting machine's first-level check to the polling party that walks two days to reach a single voter.

About the show

Ballot Boxes of the World is a fortnightly show about the mechanics of elections in different countries, hosted by Anjali Raghunathan, who spent nine years as an election officer in Tamil Nadu and later observed polls in four other countries. Each episode takes one country or one system and explains how the vote is actually run: how India moves a million polling stations through a six week schedule, why Germany gives every voter two votes, how Brazil counts electronically by evening, what a preferential ballot in Australia asks you to do, how Kenya verifies results, how postal voting works in Switzerland. Anjali speaks to electoral commissioners, returning officers and election observers and never discusses who should win. Episodes run 35 to 45 minutes. It is for people who follow elections abroad and want to understand the process rather than the horse race, for students of comparative politics, and for anyone who has wondered why some countries count overnight and others take a week.

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