[Longs]

I created a similar tool using Excel so that our GTO Club could use the GTOAA "weighted scoring" method for a local car show that we sponsor. The GTOAA scoring assigns different weights (3 points for a first place vote, 2 points for a second place vote, and 1 point for a third place vote) in its Popular Vote scoring. We've used it for a couple of shows, but it still takes time to key all of the votes into Excel. Yes, when you're finished entering votes, the results are instantaneous with Excel Pivot Tables.

At the last show with approximately 150 cars we keyed over 2,400 ballot entries. Even keying at 2 seconds per vote, that translates into 80 minutes using one computer, and that's with someone who is very proficient using the numeric 10-key pad on the computer keyboard. GTOAA Popular Vote counts will exceed 12,000 - 14,000 votes to be counted, maybe more.- you'd need several proficient 10-key data entry people to not have someone working on the entries for 8 - 10 hours. GTOAA's position is that it's easier to get 10 - 12 people around a table, passing the ballots around and tallying with paper. If the most important factor is "clock time", one or two people on computers can't tally faster than a dozen or more people with pencil and paper. For a local show where it's difficult to get volunteers to tally, the computer's a good option. I'd be surprised if anyone could convince GTOAA to abandon the paper method anytime soon.

If you could scan ballots and populate a program, that would be the best method, but then the software has to be able to deal with sloppy handwriting and other challenges.. There are probably capable optical character recognition programs out there, presumably that could create records in a database or spreadsheet to enable pivot table calculations.