Every 3-5 years, a federal election is called in Canada.
The campaign last 36 days.
During that time, all candidates that haven't been nominated are nominated (to be fair, an upcoming election is usually no big surprise)-Elections Canada has roughly 10-15 million ballots printed which meet the same standard, but are totally different for each of 308 seats.
On election day, you go to your polling place, which is printed on a card mailed to you after an enumeration (like a census, done by the federal government, often in anticipation of an election call-see above) often the gymnasium of your local elementary school. You go to the table for your precinct or you check at the table for your last name (A-M, N-Z), it depends if you've got more than one precinct voting at the polling place.
You sign in, you're assigned a numbered ballot which is initialled by the poll worker, folded, and ripped out of a book.
You head off to the booth, where you make a clear mark, prefferably an X, for your candidate. You refold the ballot, the worker pulls off the number on the counterfoil (it's perforated) and presto! secret ballot which is then dropped in the box.
This is all done under the watchfull eye of "scrutineers", offical agents of each party assigned usually one per table, if your party has enough to go around.
At the end of the night, the total ballots used is calculated, then the ballot box is opened in front of everybody and each ballot is counted in front of all interested parties. Consensus is reached over unclear intention ballots-(two marks, no marks, marks between two spaces). Then the results are phoned in to headquarters-the Elections Canada officials to their office, the scrutineers to their parties.
Somehow this is all done in roughly 3-6 hours after polls close.
Now, how f*cking hard is that!?