Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. voters will cast ballots this year on devices that look and feel like the discredited paperless voting machines they once used, yet leave a paper record of the vote. Computer security experts are warning that these so-called ballot-marking devices pose too much of a risk.
Ballot-marking machines were initially developed not as primary vote-casting tools but as “accessible” alternatives for the disabled. They print out paper records that are scanned by optical readers that tabulate the vote. They cost at least twice as much as hand-marked paper ballots, which computer scientists prefer because paper can’t be hacked.
Credit AP Photo/John Bazemore, File