Especially as an (ex-) coder you should ask for a paper ballot!
As for whether or not that’s possible: Which location are we talking about?
This will depend on your state I believe
Last I knew, it might depend on your individual voting district too. Some places are still implementing over time.
Mouse-over text:
One advantage of mail in voting, is that it always uses a paper ballot.
Not having a paper trail, is strongly being pushed by one party.
Where i voted, you can use a computer to “mark” your ballot. It then prints it out, with your selections visible. You thwn take it to another computer, and insert it inro a slot that scans the ballot. So even with the computer voting, there was a paper trail in this instance.
Where I vote, the machine prints out a paper ballot which is then scanned and counted before I leave.
This is the case in nearly every state in the USA that uses machines. The big exception is Louisiana.
Where I vote, you fill out a paper ballot, you then scan it into a machine, which then spits out a receipt showing that your ballot was scanned and your votes tabulated properly.
I don’t want that. I want the times where I got a fake ID to vote where it was pencil or pen on paper.
You may not want to confess to voter fraud on the Internet.
It’s still pen on paper.
Just instead of hand count only, they scan first, then hand count if needed later.Then you’re wasting their time and yours, as well as the effort to change anything. That’s the funny thing about the “danger” of voter fraud, it rarely is a problem because of how little one vote alone has any power. Maybe a small local district that comes close to a tie. Not that your votes isn’t important, but it’s one drop in a bathtub of water. If no one votes, it’s empty.
But they want you to think that it’s the few people who may try this that’s the problem so they can put in ID laws for other purposes, and to deflect attention from the efforts of mass manipulation of results or the disenfranchising of large demographics in strategic areas. That isn’t done by the voters, but by those in control or who work for them.
How are you an ex-coder but dont know what a server is?
He’s also a nurse who asks a concerning number of medical questions.
Ah Jesus christ this comment made me go back and check which user had posted this. Why am I not surprised?
I know what a server is. It’s the person at the restaurant who serves you food. I was more or less ask for people who don’'t really understand what it is and how they work. A lot of people think of them is a place where all data is stored (put conspiracy theory in here). And I ask questions to get dialogue going.
Where I vote machines aren’t allowed to be used in voting at all.
you also claimed to be a nurse then asked really basic questions about medicine
We have paper ballots that get scanned by a machine for the count. That way there is always a paper ballot that can be hand counted if the machine count is ever in question.
Sir, this is a Wendy’s.
My state is paper ballots and a tabulator that just counts the bubbles for each candidate, so everyone gets one. They have a computer based option for accessibility, but I believe that also prints ballots.
I’ve always been offered one, usually as the default.
boils down to it depends.
in my area, particularly we have paper ballots that then get read by the digital machines, so if there’s any type of question about the legitimacy of it, there’s the paper trail to follow.
Where I vote, you plop your government-issued smartcard in your PC and cryptographically sign your vote. Of course, this raises a privacy concern.
It should ideally be impossible to determine who you voted for, or if you did, while still allowing you to verify your vote got counted. Last I checked, this was an active (and super interesting) area of research in cryptography.
I’m sure it depends where you are. I’m in Canada, where Federal and Provincial elections are paper only, which makes my paranoid coder heart very happy. You get a piece of paper with a names on it and you put an X next to the one you want to vote for.
