Want your paper ballot hand counted instead of optically read? Write-in a candidate in any race.

[ZapatadeNuevoMexico]

18. Write in candidates are not hand counted on election day

Write in candidates cause the ballot to be rejected and submitted as a provisional ballot. The scanner can not read a hand written candidate and the poll workers can NOT tally the vote for a write in candidate, so it is put in an envelope for provisional ballots and marked as "write in candidate" and turned into the county clerk. If the election is close enough, provisional and absentee ballots are then counted, only if the race is within the margins that the uncounted provisional and absentee ballots could change the race.

Provisional ballots are NOT counted in typical elections.

The idea of getting hand counted paper ballots in the polls on election day is too democratic and hands on for this "low information" and "low participation" and "pleasure bubble" population in the U.S. Since 2004 AFTER bush stole the 2nd election, I have advocated for hand counted paper ballots in the polls with witnesses and video recorded, so anyone could check and witness the process, and the public debate or awareness has never considered this a necessary protocol for real accountable elections in the U.S.

The existing election system is chaotic at best and blatant election fraud typically. Using software disenfranchises the voter from their vote because they can not witness or participate in the process of counting ballots. We have accepted the break from our right to govern or regulate the government through elections, so now corporations contract to "count ballots" and we are TOLD the results like little children are told when Santa Claus is coming and we accept it like the SHEEPLE we are culturally. What a sad lack of critical thinking exists in the U.S. today.