Chasing a paper dream: Hand-count ballot measures undermine trust in democracy

[LiberalArkie]

Except for small, private group elections, I’ve never voted using anything other than a machine. I always trusted that my vote on mechanical or electronic devices would be counted appropriately and accurately — and I still do.

But a lot of folks have swallowed the canard that voter fraud is rampant and that the machines that tally their votes can’t be trusted.

That distrust has been simmering in Arkansas, where a group called Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative tried unsuccessfully earlier this year to get a measure on the statewide ballot to require votes to be cast in ink on paper ballots and counted by hand.

Since then, we’ve seen Republican lawmakers try mightily to put the virus back in its test tube. At least two legislative panel sessions have been devoted to showing skeptics that the state’s electronic vote tabulators are totally accurate and that hand-counting votes is not only time-consuming and expensive but prone to human error.

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https://arkansasadvocate.com/2024/08/29/chasing-a-paper-dream/

[droidamus2]

1. They ignore the past

They do remember or were not around when paper ballots were all were all we had. Ballot boxes disappearing between the precincts and the counting centers, people stuffing ballots into the boxes. The reason went with machines was exactly because there were problems asso dc usted with paper ballots. Another problem I see is the electorate is very used to almost instant results it could take weeks to get a final count. In the meantime the Republicans could use that time to push doubt about the results

[LiberalArkie]

2. That has always been my belief.

In South Arkansas where I was born and raised it was the norm that the county deputies would pick up the ballot boxes from the precincts and deliver then to the court house. Of course they all had little seals crimped on the latches. The prefilled out ballot boxes in the trunk of the patrol car also had the proper seal. That was why the black precincts always, always voted for the racist sheriffs and county government even when an honest person was running.

I am wondering about the tabulators being used to count the ballots now. Especially here in Arkansas. It cost more money now to throw an election than it did back in the 50's and 60's.

I would be in favor of a national organization certifying all the tabulators and having a national standard for them.