We've been bored to death these past two days with blanket coverage of the mix up at the Oscars ceremony.
But it happens in politics too.
In fact it happened twice in May 2015. Mistakes in the counting meant that the wrong candidate was declared in the winner in elections for Broxtowe Borough Council and Workington Town Council.
Back in 2011, again in Broxtowe, a married couple of Liberal Democrats had to go to the High Court to get the right one of them elected.
As the Nottingham Post told it in July of that year:
A mistake by election officials who declared the wrong member of a husband and wife team the winner at the ballot box has now been fixed at the High Court.
Bob and Hazel Charlesworth, of Garden Street, Eastwood, each stood for election as Liberal Democrat councillors in the Eastwood North and Greasley (Beauvale) ward of Broxtowe Borough Council in May.
At the results, Mrs Charlesworth was declared the winner and took the ward's second seat on the council, but it was her husband who had actually polled more votes.
Bob Charlesworth said he was pleased the situation had been sorted.The lesson is that you should keep a sharp eye on the counting of votes - whether at the Oscars or your local council elections.
In the 70s I used to hover over the spoiled ballot papers to argue the fight that this or that cross was on our side of the line.This way we got a bigger count. Maggie Clay kept an eye on the rest.
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