Voting In Potter County

I guess I've just always been lucky in the past. I've been voting for many years (since 1968), and I've always been able to vote on a paper ballot. Sometimes that ballot was hand-counted and sometimes it was optically-scanned, but there was always a paper ballot which could be referred back to in case of a recount.

Yesterday, I voted for the first time in Potter county and I was not given that option. If you want to vote in Potter county, you must do it on an electronic machine with no paper printout. This made me very uneasy - how am I to trust that my vote was counted correctly?

The only assurance possible with this kind of electronic voting is that the same number of votes were counted as were cast. No one, not the Voter Registrar, the Secretary of State, or anyone else can assure you that the votes were counted CORRECTLY!

Furthermore, these machines make recounts a moot point. If the machine didn't count the votes correctly the first time, then it will not do it correctly the second time either. It will simply repeat the initial count it made, whether it was correct or not.

I have heard some say that the electronic machines are more accurate. I simply do not believe it. I have been a poll-worker and participated in the hand-counting of ballots. There are four or five people each totaling the count and their totals must match, or the count is re-done until the totals do match. Even then, the paper ballots are there for as many recounts as neccessary.

I have also heard that the machines cannot be "hacked" or rigged to give a false count. This is not true. It is just a lie told by the company to sell more machines and believed by fools too lazy to do their homework. It is far too easy to cheat with these machines. Go to the web site Black Box Voting.org and see for yourself just how easy it is.

We must return to paper ballots. It is the only way the people can be assured the counting is honest and reproducable. It doesn't matter much whether the ballots are hand-counted or scanned (although I would prefer they were hand-counted).

At the very least, the electronic machines should produce a paper printout showing the votes cast. The voter could then verify this and place the printout in a ballot box. Then if electronic error was suspected, the printouts could be used in a recount.

Voters must have confidence that their votes are counted correctly, or they will have no incentive to vote. What is the purpose in casting a vote that can be "hacked" and changed?