Total recount of the vote only in elections with tight results 521. Canada, some states in the USA, Hungary, Lithuania and Mexico provide by law for a total recount of the vote at the request of any of the parties. In Canada and the USA the petitioner must bear the cost if he or she is subsequently found to be mistaken. There is also provision for an automatic recount, called by the EMB itself, when the difference between first and second place is less than a specified percentage. For example, an automatic recount is triggered in Canada when the difference is less than 0.1 per cent of the votes cast; in the state of Washington, USA, when the difference is less than 0.5 per cent of the votes cast; in Lithuania when the difference is less than 50 votes; and in Hungary and Mexico when it is less than 1 per cent of the votes cast. 522. Although some US states provide for a total recount of the votes in elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate and for governors and state legislators, there is currently no provision in the USA for a total recount in presidential elections. Partial recounts are possible but at least three states (Alabama, Illinois and Kentucky) do not allow for any possibility of challenge or recount. In states other than those that provide for an automatic recount, there must first be a challenge or request by an interested party in the other states. In the various states of the United States polling officers are usually appointed on the proposal of the political parties. In most states the voting is computerized. 523. In the UK a losing candidate may submit an election petition challenging the election of a successful candidate by asking for scrutiny of the counted votes. The petitioner hopes to have individual votes excluded from or added to the count in order to change the result of the election. This scrutiny is not defined in the legislation, although its existence is recognized in several sections of the main piece of electoral legislation, the Representation of the People Act. This scrutiny procedure accompanies a polling system in which ballot papers are numbered and the polling number of the voter is recorded on a counterfoil to the ballot paper by the polling station staff, thus enabling the EDRB to identify and remove from the count ballot papers subsequently found to be ineligible. While this is broadly accepted in the UK, there are many countries in which such an approach would not command confidence because of secrecy of the ballot issues. 524. Similarly, in spite of the fact that there are no express statutory provisions in the EDR system, several EDRBs have established legal precedents upholding or ordering a total recount. For example, the Supreme Court of Taiwan (Zuì gaō fă yuàn) validated the total recount of the national vote ordered by the Taipei High (Appellate) Court after the 2004 presidential election. Other examples include the actions of the Higher Court of Namibia after the 2004 172