All of Canada uses a pencil or pen to mark a sheet of paper, which is then fed into an electronic counting machine. That way there’s a paper record of every single vote, showing exactly what the voter intended. The poll workers don’t touch the ballot from the moment they hand it to you to the moment it goes in the machine, so there’s never any question of impropriety. Afterwards the paper ballots are all hand counted and those counts are checked against the machines in case of any error (or sabotage). The whole process is fast, secure, and we have a result within an hour of polls closing. We use this for federal, provincial, and civic elections.
That’s the major reason. There’s a paper trail. If electronic voting infrastructure fails, it’s possible to completely lose a record of someone’s vote, and then how can you prove the vote in the beginning?
Oregon here. Black or blue pen, in the comfort of your own home. Ballots get mailed out weeks ahead of time to everyone in the state, then you can pop them in the mail or bike over to the local library or wherever your closest dropbox is. Ranked choice voting for Portland for the first time this year, too.
What does paper ballot mean if it’s all electronic? When I voted, I filled a bubble with black pan and stuck the ballot in an oversized Scantron machine
Here in Ohio you do a touch screen that prints out a paper ballot which has both English and barcode for each choice then you go to a different machine to cast your ballot by scanning it in. This gave me the opportunity to double check everything, once when reviewing I made the correct decisions before printing, then again to confirm my ballot said what I voted for.
Real question here: what bum fucked counties still bubble in their choices with a pencil?
I live in LITERALLY bum fucked Texas and we have electronic voting! Still paper ballot, but it’s all done electronically.
Right? What a bunch of horseshit!
My county uses pens to fill in our bubbles…
All of Canada uses a pencil or pen to mark a sheet of paper, which is then fed into an electronic counting machine. That way there’s a paper record of every single vote, showing exactly what the voter intended. The poll workers don’t touch the ballot from the moment they hand it to you to the moment it goes in the machine, so there’s never any question of impropriety. Afterwards the paper ballots are all hand counted and those counts are checked against the machines in case of any error (or sabotage). The whole process is fast, secure, and we have a result within an hour of polls closing. We use this for federal, provincial, and civic elections.
That’s the major reason. There’s a paper trail. If electronic voting infrastructure fails, it’s possible to completely lose a record of someone’s vote, and then how can you prove the vote in the beginning?
Oregon here. Black or blue pen, in the comfort of your own home. Ballots get mailed out weeks ahead of time to everyone in the state, then you can pop them in the mail or bike over to the local library or wherever your closest dropbox is. Ranked choice voting for Portland for the first time this year, too.
Colorado reporting in, all of our ballots get mailed out, you use a pen(cil) to bubble in the ballot.
Same for WA!
What does paper ballot mean if it’s all electronic? When I voted, I filled a bubble with black pan and stuck the ballot in an oversized Scantron machine
Because you have a paper record to fall back on. It can be important.
Here in Ohio you do a touch screen that prints out a paper ballot which has both English and barcode for each choice then you go to a different machine to cast your ballot by scanning it in. This gave me the opportunity to double check everything, once when reviewing I made the correct decisions before printing, then again to confirm my ballot said what I voted for.
I wasn’t aware that wasn’t the norm
That’s cool and all. But we got effectively the same thing for the price of a pen.
It can also be used for people with disabilities. And while it is more expensive it can be much quicker and lead to shorter line times.
It’s also prone to error and tampering.
It’s for recounts and physical proof.
Alabama… well we actually get to use a black bic pen. But we feed it into a scantron reader.
Most places I have lived in the northeast have bubble voting sheets.
Vote by mail is the best.
I think even if the entire country was electronic they would still do a pen or pencil as a visual trope.
Pen.
Pa does! Paper ballot fed into electronic vote counter
Same with IL
Black pen for us. Fill it in all the way or fuck you
Last time I voted in NYC it was with a paper and pencil