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> There is literally no reason not to also have a paper trail. There is one reason, which is that if you give the voter a paper record stating who they voted f

> There is literally no reason not to also have a paper trail. There is one reason, which is that if you give the voter a paper record stating who they voted for, that voter can be shaken down upon leaving their polling place by goons hired by one political machine or another demanding to see that record. That sort of thing used to happen all the time back in the heyday of machine politics, as the dominant machine would very much want to know if you actually voted for their candidates or not -- particularly if they'd paid you before election day to do so.

quickthrowman 7y ago
Why would the voter remove the paper ballot or paper receipt from the polling place? The paper would be kept by poll workers so the electronic count can be audited. My state has paper ballots that are counted electronically. I feel this is a good compromise and allows much easier vote total auditing.
- dependenttypes 7y ago
  > My state has paper ballots that are counted electronically This is really not much better.
  - toast0 7y ago
    Paper ballots counted electronically allows for a hand count. In case of close elections (as measured by the electronics) a hand count is usually required. You can (and some jurisdictions will) also do a hand count of some number of ballots to confirm the electronic count is at least plausible. Given the number of questions voters are voting on (at least in CA and WA, there's usually 30-50 things to vote on), hand counting everything would be immensely time consuming.
sfkdjf9j3j 7y ago
He's not referring to giving you a receipt, he's talking about voting machines that produce a paper print out that the voter quickly confirms at the polling place, then deposits in a ballot box. If the custody these paper ballots is managed carefully, they can later be used to verify any apparent funny business in the results of the electronic vote counting system.
chasing 7y ago
A paper trail doesn't mean giving people a receipt saying who they voted for. It means recording votes both digitally and physically so if there's concern about one, the other can be checked.

quickthrowman 7y ago

Why would the voter remove the paper ballot or paper receipt from the polling place? The paper would be kept by poll workers so the electronic count can be audited. My state has paper ballots that are counted electronically. I feel this is a good compromise and allows much easier vote total auditing.

dependenttypes 7y ago
> My state has paper ballots that are counted electronically This is really not much better.
- toast0 7y ago
  Paper ballots counted electronically allows for a hand count. In case of close elections (as measured by the electronics) a hand count is usually required. You can (and some jurisdictions will) also do a hand count of some number of ballots to confirm the electronic count is at least plausible. Given the number of questions voters are voting on (at least in CA and WA, there's usually 30-50 things to vote on), hand counting everything would be immensely time consuming.

sfkdjf9j3j 7y ago

He's not referring to giving you a receipt, he's talking about voting machines that produce a paper print out that the voter quickly confirms at the polling place, then deposits in a ballot box. If the custody these paper ballots is managed carefully, they can later be used to verify any apparent funny business in the results of the electronic vote counting system.

chasing 7y ago

A paper trail doesn't mean giving people a receipt saying who they voted for. It means recording votes both digitally and physically so if there's concern about one, the other can be checked.