7 Reasons to Count Ballots by Hand
OBSERVERS ARE SEEING THE ACTUAL COUNTING OF THE VOTES
Today, when campaign officials or the public “observe the count” all they see are envelopes and ballots processed through whirling machines. They do not actually see the counting of the ballots.
DECENTRALIZED PROCESS PREVENTS SYSTEMATIC CHEATING
It is obvious that a vote count cannot be corrupted from one central point if the system is decentralized and a lot more people have to be involved to impact the final result.
RESULTS ARE REPORTED THAT NIGHT, NOT DAYS LATER
Vote-by-mail, combined with ballot return deadlines that are too close to or after election day prevent the public from knowing the outcome election night, or early the next morning. Election counts that go on for days can be corrupted by actors who have time to reverse election trends seen in the early count.
EACH PRECINCT REPORTS DIRECTLY TO THE PUBLIC, AS WELL AS TO ELECTION OFFICIALS
Having reporting, as well as counting, decentralized is a check on the ability of bad actors to have enough impact to swing an election through corrupted tabulation of the true results.
WHEN MOST OF THE BALLOTS ARE TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM THE BALLOT BOX TO AN ADJOINING ROOM FOR IMMEDIATE COUNTING, “CHAIN-OF-CUSTODY” ISSUES ARE MINIMIZED
Voter-to-poll workers with observers, to counting with observers in the same location, eliminates the ability for bad actors to alter, substitute, or “lose” ballots.
MINIMAL TRANSPORT AND WAREHOUSING OF VOTED BALLOTS
Under the current system ballots are vulnerable to bad actors who are sending them out, handling in the mail system, sitting out in the homes of voters, sitting in drop boxes or back into the mail system, and back to the election office where they are handled and stored before they are fed into machines where the actual count cannot be observed. Transport and warehousing issues also apply to early voting.
HAND-COUNTING PAPER BALLOTS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD PRECINCT WAS DONE SUCCESSFULLY FOR DECADES IN UTAH.
We are proposing a proof-tested system, not a wild new idea that sounds good and that we merely hope works.