Why aren't all voting systems like my city? [View all]

[louis c]

I live in a small city adjacent to Boston. Our voting system seems like it is the best system you can have. It consists of portable vote scanning machines that are put into each precinct. The voter is handed a paper ballot and the voter colors in a circle to indicate the preference of the candidate or issue. You check in and check out. After checking out, you place your small, placard like paper ballot into the scanner. The scanner is not associated with any outside computer. The paper ballot is recorded by the scanner and falls into a the lower part of the machine. At the end of the night, the scanner numbers are read as unofficial results (in the end, they are never off more than 1 or 2 votes from the official tabulation. That's usually because of write-ins or over-votes on a particular ballot). There is no outside internet connection, there is a paper back up for verification and the unofficial results are known within 10 minutes of closing the polls. What else do we need?