Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy

They have a better system of election in India than we have here in the United States.” These are the words of former Senator Bob Kerrey (D-Nebraska), who now heads the New School of Social Research in New York City.

Sen. Kerrey, when he commented on India’s more simple ballot, was expressing some frustration about the kind of discrepancies that have occurred with possible recounts holding up the elections as they did four years ago. Now that may be history, but his view on the election systems that differ from one state to the other in the U.S. was reinforced by India’s Chief Election Commissioner, T.S. Krishnamurthy, who was in the United States as an observer (International Visitor) to the Nov. 2 elections.

“The systems and procedures are different. There are similarities and dissimilarities between India and the U.S.,” conceded Krishnamurthy in an interview with News India-Times. “I went to two of the polling stations in Virginia using two different machines –– the conventional voting machine and an E-slate machine –– in two different counties.”

Krishnamurthy noted that ballot papers in the U.S. could have numerous items for a voter to express their opinion, not just one to select the President. “For example, their ballot paper contains more than one item –– ranging from five items on one of them in Virginia, to even 79 items as in Arizona, I am told. It includes voting on amendments to the state constitution or something else, and voters may not have enough time to go into all these issues,” Krishnamurthy said. “It was an interesting experience.”

He was invited to observe the election by the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission and the International Foundation of Electoral Systems.

“I found the voters were enthusiastic and it was more or less similar to India because I was told participation was 60 percent,” he said. “We saw Indians at the polling places, but we did not talk to them.”

India’s Election Commission has entered into an arrangement with the United Nations Organization Political Affairs Division to provide exchange of information and training facilities, Krishnamurthy told News India-Times.

Though he refused to express a value judgment regarding the U.S. election, he told the BBC Hindi service in an earlier interview that the “Indian electoral system is simpler because of its uniformity, with all the voters expected to reach the polling station to exercise their right to vote.”

Over the years, citizens of the oldest democracy have been questioning the efficacy of polling in the U.S., whether the Electoral College should be abolished, whether there should be a uniform system nationwide and whether each vote should be given equal value rather than giving over a state’s electoral vote going by the majority in that state –– all valid questions that citizens of this country have to mull over. But that did not stop others around the world from expressing their views.

In a global scenario where citizens of many countries have expressed anti-U.S. views, and an election year that saw citizens of other countries trying to influence the American voter with phone calls etc., on grounds that the world was affected by who occupied the White House.

“In my opinion the U.S. election system will gain by having a greater uniformity, but for historical reasons this is not yet possible,” Krishnamurthy told BBC.

In India, the Election Commission conducts and oversees the national vote, and this time over a million electronic machines were installed around the country to cast and count the votes in the recent general elections. The process was relatively smooth and the world sat up to notice how well and peacefully the largest electorate expressed its franchise.