In Australia the ballots are counted multiple times, including an initial count at each of the booths. They're then physically relocated to Electoral Commission offices for recounting, usually twice.
All ballot boxes are numbered and a tally of votes cast is kept. Each box is sealed in the presence of party scrutineers with numbered tags and signed for. It's sealed and tagged again before shipment. Each is opened and signed for in the presence of scrutineers.
The number of ballots is compared to the number of names marked off the electoral roll at each booth.
If a sufficiently large irregularity occurs, one of the political parties will take the matter to the Court of Disputed Returns, which can force fresh elections. This happened recently because several ballot boxes for Federal Senate votes in Western Australia were lost by the AEC. The number of votes in question were enough to leave the 6th Senate seat in doubt, so the Court voided the election.
All ballot boxes are numbered and a tally of votes cast is kept. Each box is sealed in the presence of party scrutineers with numbered tags and signed for. It's sealed and tagged again before shipment. Each is opened and signed for in the presence of scrutineers.
The number of ballots is compared to the number of names marked off the electoral roll at each booth.
If a sufficiently large irregularity occurs, one of the political parties will take the matter to the Court of Disputed Returns, which can force fresh elections. This happened recently because several ballot boxes for Federal Senate votes in Western Australia were lost by the AEC. The number of votes in question were enough to leave the 6th Senate seat in doubt, so the Court voided the election.