New proposal to require paper ballots and strict audits for federal elections

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by pknopp

How much do you have to pay people OT to hand count paper ballots? My wife being city clerk hated elections as she had to be one of those counting paper ballots and then take them to the county court house.

There are far more opportunities here for someone not trustworthy to muck up the system.

Here in Idaho, we never stopped using paper ballots. The first ones were the old computer punch cards, and were counted by those computers. But when that entire system became so obsolete it couldn't continue, Idaho switched to plain paper ballots, marked with black ink, and then scanned by high-speed scanners and tabulators in the county clerk's offices.

The change didn't increase the clerk's work load, needed no more election workers than the old one. The only change is it made voting a little slower than before. But it also sped up the after-vote process a little, too.

Here, every voter is on a registration list, and now has to show ID as well. A voter signs the registration list first, and verbally certifies the name and address before receiving a ballot. Every voter's name is announced after receiving their ballot and after voting aloud as well. Little chance of voter fraud here.

[pknopp]

Originally Posted by banjomike

Here in Idaho, we never stopped using paper ballots. The first ones were the old computer punch cards, and were counted by those computers. But when that entire system became so obsolete it couldn't continue, Idaho switched to plain paper ballots, marked with black ink, and then scanned by high-speed scanners and tabulators in the county clerk's offices.

The change didn't increase the clerk's work load, needed no more election workers than the old one. The only change is it made voting a little slower than before. But it also sped up the after-vote process a little, too.

Here, every voter is on a registration list, and now has to show ID as well. A voter signs the registration list first, and verbally certifies the name and address before receiving a ballot. Every voter's name is announced after receiving their ballot and after voting aloud as well. Little chance of voter fraud here.

Nor is there in the electronic units we use and it's far faster and more efficient.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by pknopp

Nor is there in the electronic units we use and it's far faster and more efficient.

True. But what are the best qualities we seek for an election? Is speed better than accuracy? Is efficiency better than security? Simplicity or technology?

Just sayin'. I think there's probably no 'best' system. What works well in one place might not for lots of reasons.

[pknopp]

Originally Posted by banjomike

True. But what are the best qualities we seek for an election? Is speed better than accuracy? Is efficiency better than security? Simplicity or technology?

Just sayin'. I think there's probably no 'best' system. What works well in one place might not for lots of reasons.

Electronic counts are always going to be more accurate than hand counts. Also, no hanging chads. No questioning whether something is a mark or not.