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.
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?
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
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.
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!
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?
Right? What a bunch of horseshit!
My county uses pens to fill in our bubbles…
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
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.
Pen.
Pa does! Paper ballot fed into electronic vote counter
Same with IL
Most places I have lived in the northeast have bubble voting sheets.
I think even if the entire country was electronic they would still do a pen or pencil as a visual trope.
Last time I voted in NYC it was with a paper and pencil
Vote by mail is the best.
Black pen for us. Fill it in all the way or fuck you