Who said anything about counting?
“Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.” ― Joseph Stalin
WHY did Joseph Stalin say, “The people who cast votes determine nothing, the people who count votes determine everything”?
That’s how the European communists - who never had any influence on pre-war politics, and not much during the war - got in power in the countries ‘liberated’ by the Red Army during WW2.
With certain people counting more votes for the smaller communist parties than received.
Remember:
“A referendum on the Act of Declaration of Independence was held in Ukraine on 1 December 1991. An overwhelming majority of 92.3% of voters approved the declaration of independence from Russia, including Donbas, made by the Verkhovna Rada on 24 August 1991.”