I completely agree with not having electronic voting machines. The thought of no paper trail is very scary. I have worked at the polls and Currently I work at the election department on Election days, helping to balance the totals and enter the data in the computer. We have ballots that require you to connect the arrow. There are signs everywhere in the booth and also a person demonstrating how to draw a straight line. People still circle the candidate, check off the name, draw a line through it. And people still request new ballots because they have marked theirs wrong. We have to write "spoiled" on both sides and put it in a special envelope to account for it. Would the electric machine mean there is no recount? What about people who are on the inactive list and vote? That requires the filling out of a form and producing ID. Or a challenged ballot if the person has no ID their name and address go on the ballot and in case of a recount that ballot is researched. Now in MA we have provisional ballots for people who may have registered at the RMV or who don't show up on the lists. They vote and it goes in to an envelope and there are three days in which to research that person until it is determined if they could vote or not. How will that go into the computer? Using computers seems like a great idea, but dealing with the crashing computers and no paper trail seems very scary.
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I completely agree with not having electronic voting machines. The thought of no paper trail is very scary. I have worked at the polls and Currently I work at the election department on Election days, helping to balance the totals and enter the data in the computer. We have ballots that require you to connect the arrow. There are signs everywhere in the booth and also a person demonstrating how to draw a straight line. People still circle the candidate, check off the name, draw a line through it. And people still request new ballots because they have marked theirs wrong. We have to write "spoiled" on both sides and put it in a special envelope to account for it. Would the electric machine mean there is no recount? What about people who are on the inactive list and vote? That requires the filling out of a form and producing ID. Or a challenged ballot if the person has no ID their name and address go on the ballot and in case of a recount that ballot is researched. Now in MA we have provisional ballots for people who may have registered at the RMV or who don't show up on the lists. They vote and it goes in to an envelope and there are three days in which to research that person until it is determined if they could vote or not. How will that go into the computer? Using computers seems like a great idea, but dealing with the crashing computers and no paper trail seems very scary.