An apparatus for collecting and transmitting the data of votes includes a central server S connected through a mobile phone network C to a plurality of n portable units U located one in each polling station. Each portable unit U includes a keyboard, a display, a memory and a digital transceiver system and is directly programmed by server S according to the operational coordinates transmitted to the server upon activation of the unit. During the counting process, the user only has to strike the key corresponding to the value of the scrutinized ballot and as soon as the counting session is completed he can send immediately to server S the relevant results. Thanks to this method of centralized programmation and automatic vote counting, both the risks of errors and the time required for collecting and forwarding the data are greatly reduced.