Why aren't all voting systems like my city?

[louis c]

I live in a small city adjacent to Boston. Our voting system seems like it is the best system you can have. It consists of portable vote scanning machines that are put into each precinct. The voter is handed a paper ballot and the voter colors in a circle to indicate the preference of the candidate or issue. You check in and check out. After checking out, you place your small, placard like paper ballot into the scanner. The scanner is not associated with any outside computer. The paper ballot is recorded by the scanner and falls into a the lower part of the machine. At the end of the night, the scanner numbers are read as unofficial results (in the end, they are never off more than 1 or 2 votes from the official tabulation. That's usually because of write-ins or over-votes on a particular ballot). There is no outside internet connection, there is a paper back up for verification and the unofficial results are known within 10 minutes of closing the polls. What else do we need?

[bearsfootball516]

1. That sounds like a pretty great system.

Personally, I don't think we'll ever see a real shift back to paper ballots on a national scale. Electronic voting machines are just too convenient.

[Jersey Devil]

2. That's how we do it here in Goldsboro, North Carolina

I don't know what systems are used throughout the state, but I was rather surprised to see this system when I first voted here in 2016.

[pnwmom]

3. Mine is easier. Everyone essentially votes absentee, on a paper ballot.

We have a couple weeks before the election date to turn it in. Either we can put it in the mail (with prepaid postage) or in a secure lock box, located in various places around the county.

Afterwards, we can look online at the Elections office to make sure it was checked in.

The paper ballots are then machine scanned, and are available for audits afterwards.

[oberliner]

4. What if it gets lost in the mail?

[pnwmom]

7. As I said, we can check online to make sure it was received and checked in.

The outer envelopes contain ID #'s so they know if yours came in. If it didn't, then they'll cancel that ballot and issue another.

The outer envelope with your ID # also has your signature, name, and address. But the ballot itself is inside the inner privacy envelope, which doesn't contain identifying info.

[oberliner]

8. Gotcha

For some reason, I always feel a little paranoid when I vote absentee as opposed to in person.

[pnwmom]

11. There's still the option of leaving the ballot in the very large lock boxes, one of which

is at a nearby shopping center. There's never a line -- I just swing by and drop it in.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Sounds Identical To What We Have

In our precinct (also a small town) we go the ESDA center to vote. Same type of ballot, same type of scanner.

It would take blatant cheating to alter the vote, i would think.

[ehrnst]

6. We need to protect voter databases from hacking

Voters can be removed from the databases that print out the lists of eligible voters for each polling place, so eligible voters can be turned away.

[pnwmom]

9. Another issue is the voter database. In Nov. 2016 the Russians poked around

the registration lists in a number of states, and are believed to have altered some of the lists.

[Nitram]

10. All of Virginia now uses a paper ballot that is completed by the voter and then scanned.

[NewJeffCT]

12. sounds like how it works in my town in Connecticut

I can't verify that the machines aren't connected to the internet, but the ballots and scanning machines sound very similar.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

13. Sounds like Michigan's system

Ballots have either scantron like bubbles or you draw a short line to your candidate. All are tabulated by counting machines, none of which have internet connections, or any sort of outside ports beyond the power cable. The ballots are stored in the machine, the machine prints a receipt like sheet with the vote counts. The entire state was like this in 2016. Starting in 2017, they started rolling out new tabulators, and I haven't seen what model they are or if they connect to the internet or not.

[TreasonousBastard]

14. In my county we do the same thing. NY was among the last to go electronic, so we learned...

from everyone else. The state gave us a short list of acceptable machines to choose from.

There are two chips in each machine-- one has the code, inserted by the BoE, and the other has the results. Someone takes off with the chips with the totals and drops them at a central location, where they are read and announced.

Problem is, though, that the machines are getting old and breaking down too often. Scanners are the big problem.

[The Genealogist]

15. This is the system used at my precinct as well

What you described sounds exactly like what I see when I vote. We used to have punch cards you inserted into a frame surrounding little holes and you punched the card with a little poker. Both were paper. Wouldn't want just touch screens.

[MineralMan]

16. Same system as here in Minnesota.

And after each election, random precincts are selected for a hand recount, to check the accuracy of the results. Good system.

[indigovalley]

18. Same in my Minnesota town

Yes, love this system. I always feel confident my vote will be recorded properly even if the machine malfunctions.

[MineralMan]

20. I'm pretty sure it's statewide.

[sinkingfeeling]

17. We had that, but they replaced them with ESS voting machines in 2016.

[frazzled]

19. That's how I vote here in Chicago.

As I did when I lived in Minnesota and then Massachusetts—paper mark -in ballots (either bubbles or connect the arrow line) inserted into opti-scan machines.

With the exception here that if you vote early (not on Election Day) you will have to use a computer-screen system. That is because early voting is done not precinct by precinct but at early voting centers across the city. There are hundreds of different ballots depending on your exact location, especially because of judicial races that involve different circuit court races, etc. It is too complicated to have dozens of different paper ballots to hand out, I guess, so in this case you will have to use an electronic machine that provides the proper ballot for your precinct.

As for mail-in ballots, I think people are naive in thinking they are sacrosanct. You honestly don’t know what happens to them once they leave your hands: an unscrupulous worker can post that it has been received and recorded, and then throw it in the trash. Perhaps unlikely, but very possible. Also, if your ballot does get waylaid by the post office, or you didn’t put the proper postage on it (an issue in the recent California primaries), or if someone decides your signature is not right—there may not be time to correct the situation.

Early voting is great for candidates to bank votes, but there are problems too. Say a person votes for a candidate 3 weeks before the election, and then 6 days before the election a scandal breaks or some information that hadn’t been considered is revealed. Too late.

That’s why if at all possible, I vote on Election Day, at my precinct, on a paper ballot inserted into an opti-scan machine.