I have always found it a little suspicious that the vote totals for the Oscars are not revealed. I suspect this is a marketing-driven tactic, as it helps the winner shine brighter, and none of the runners-up look too bad. Personally, I would like to see the actual vote totals.
What does the wise and learned Doper community think?
I wouldn’t like it made public. It would take some of the shine off the trophy, in many cases. And it would make for way too much trivia to memorize.
Not the final votes, because it would take some of the shine off and make too many people feel bad, but the nomination totals? Oh yes, that would be fascinating.
Absolutely the vote totals should be revealed (though it still ought to be an anonymous ballot). How could it be anything other than fascinating? I can understand not wanting to cheapen the moment, so just put off releasing the totals until a week after the ceremony – or a month, or a year. Actually, I rather like that last one. In the run-up to the Oscars, reveal the totals from last year’s awards. It would help to generate interest in the whole process.
That’s been my understanding why the final Oscar vote totals are never revealed. As it stands now, even losing nominees can parlay their nominations into landing good roles or getting their screenplays green-lighted by the studio. If everybody knew the final voting totals and saw, for example, that you only got a couple votes, your nomination would be devalued and your ability to effectively negotiate undermined. And if you think the Oscar politicking and controversy over what movie or performance got robbed is bad now, it would be many times more loud and endless if the vote totals were released.
Basically, while the Academy Awards are “serious business” in Hollywood it’s not like they were selecting the leader of the free world. Thus, few have ever seen the need to make the final vote totals public (or at least not for 100 years or so until all the nominees are clearly no longer active).
What sort of voting system is used? First past the post? Or some sort of preferential system?
I was thinking of this the other day, and have a question along the same subject: do they keep the accounting data or do the destroy it?
The balloting to determine the slate of nominees is a complicated preferential system (don’t have the link on me, but it’s posted several times in other Oscar threads).
But for the final ballot? It’s a simple plurality. In the early years of the Oscars, if the vote tallies were in a few votes of each other, it was considered a “tie”. Thus, even though Frederic March got one more vote than Wallace Beery in the Best Actor competition for the 1931/32 ceremony, they both walked off with the award. That swiftly changed and now, a tie only occurs when the exact number of votes are tabulated (and I’ve read that for any tie–there have been a few over the years–they do three or four more recounts than is typical).
Don’t know if they destroy the final tallies or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they do simply because that info just lying around is potential dynamite in the wrong hands (though it’s often been asserted that nothing is recorded electronically, and that all counting and tabulating are in tightly controlled conditions, done by hand, and the winners are never written down but memorized by the PWC guys who carry the sealed envelopes to the award show).
The winners are not written down on the form the presenter reads? Or do they just read it off a screen?
The winners are written inside the sealed envelopes. The presenters don’t know who has won until they open the envelope after they’ve announced all the nominees. I’ve read that nothing else is written down anywhere–that’s why the PWC guys memorize the winners, so if anyone misstates what’s in the envelope, they can intervene.
I’m assuming that they make a Winner Card to insert inside the envelope for every nominee. Then, the two PWC guys (who are the only two inside the entire PWC organization who know all the final tallies) select the card that reflects the actual winner and destroy the rest.
I do know that sometimes winners are “pre-taped” (like when an animated character announces the winner). In those cases, a version for every possible nominee is created and available at a push of the button in the control booth; one of the PWC guys is in there, and when it’s time to make the announcement, he tells the director of the show the winner so they’ll push the right button.
I also know that when they cast the Oscar statuettes, they make the maximum possible amount in the eventuality that every high-number multiple nominee wins across the board. This means that inevitably, there are extra Oscar statuettes waiting around backstage at the end of the ceremony, which presumably are returned to the Academy (and summarily destroyed or archived).
Essentially, great pains are taken to not even give the slightest hint or suggestion that anybody besides the two accountants knows who will win that night–nobody else in AMPAS or PWC or anywhere else.
Of course there was a rumor that Marissa Tomei did not win for My Cousin Vinny, they read the wrong name. Not sure where that started. Guess people could not believe a comedy film won an award
How many people on average vote? It’d be pretty bad if the best actor was decided by say 50 people splitting their votes four ways. Or if the best actor votes totaled a few thousand while the best supporting actor votes all together totalled 20
I believe for most of the awards, only those members of the Academy in the specific field that is nominated vote for that particular award (e.g., sound editors vote for Best Sound Editing, screenwriters vote for Best Original or Adopted Screenplay, etc.). All Academy members, no matter the field, vote for Best Picture. (However, I’m not sure if everybody or just the actors vote for the acting awards.)
Thanks for all the replies – lots of interesting posts.
I would be a little concerned if only two people at PWC were responsible for tallying the votes and then destroyed the ballots. It would be awfully easy for them to pick their favorites… Then again, auditors are scrupulous and incorruptible. 
This is not exactly correct. While it’s true that members of specific branches are solely responsible for creating the nomination slate for that particular category, when it comes to the final ballot, ALL Academy members can vote in ALL categories, with the following exceptions:
Foreign Language Film
Documentary (Short and Feature)
Live Action Short
Animated Short
You cannot vote in these categories unless you’ve certified that you’ve seen all the nominees by attending specific Academy screenings. When it comes to vote totals, it’s probably safe to say that a significantly smaller percentage of voters are reponsible for determining the fate of these winners than in the other regular feature-length categories (there are about 5800 Academy members in total).
I was unaware of that. I thought at least for the technical awards, voting was limited only to those in that specific field because with their expertise they would be in a better position to judge, for example, best film editor than an actor.