I run elections...and I would rather have the machine count the votes, than go through thousands by hand to count. After awhile, mistakes can be made when hand counting. It is very tedious and after awhile you become cross-eyed. We pre-test ALL machines and even with marking test ballots during pre-election mode, hand counting has to be done over and over again. If there was just one office on each ballot, that would be different. But when you have sometimes as many as 50 candidates on one ballot...the possibility of errors in hand counting are atrocious. The only reason for the newest type of voting machines in our state is because of HAVA. Actually, we don't promote the machine. It's cumbersome, can be extremely long to use, but it provides a method for those with special needs (blind, deaf, etc.) What we are lacking is a national voter ID card. I live on the border between states; there is no way to no whether a person who owns a second home in another state votes more than once. And in our area, there are ALOT of people who could do this. And another thing that stops the whole process is the people who vote for "I Don't Care" and "Mickey Mouse", etc. Those votes have to be hand counted and tracked. What a waste of taxpayer dollars for those that have NO IDEA of the amount of time it takes to make sure those votes get counted! The last governor's election, I began work at 4:30 am and ended at 4:45 am the next day; no sleep, no napping....just working. If we hand counted those same ballots, we probably would have had to lock them up, get some sleep and worked until late the next day. That is not exactly the safest plan. There is a lot more to voting than just having the machine print the totals at the end of the day. I encourage anyone who complains about the system, volunteer their time on election day to work at the polls!
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I run elections...and I would rather have the machine count the votes, than go through thousands by hand to count. After awhile, mistakes can be made when hand counting. It is very tedious and after awhile you become cross-eyed. We pre-test ALL machines and even with marking test ballots during pre-election mode, hand counting has to be done over and over again. If there was just one office on each ballot, that would be different. But when you have sometimes as many as 50 candidates on one ballot...the possibility of errors in hand counting are atrocious. The only reason for the newest type of voting machines in our state is because of HAVA. Actually, we don't promote the machine. It's cumbersome, can be extremely long to use, but it provides a method for those with special needs (blind, deaf, etc.) What we are lacking is a national voter ID card. I live on the border between states; there is no way to no whether a person who owns a second home in another state votes more than once. And in our area, there are ALOT of people who could do this. And another thing that stops the whole process is the people who vote for "I Don't Care" and "Mickey Mouse", etc. Those votes have to be hand counted and tracked. What a waste of taxpayer dollars for those that have NO IDEA of the amount of time it takes to make sure those votes get counted! The last governor's election, I began work at 4:30 am and ended at 4:45 am the next day; no sleep, no napping....just working. If we hand counted those same ballots, we probably would have had to lock them up, get some sleep and worked until late the next day. That is not exactly the safest plan. There is a lot more to voting than just having the machine print the totals at the end of the day. I encourage anyone who complains about the system, volunteer their time on election day to work at the polls!