Paper provides a check for vote accuracy

Voter-verified

On May 16, I was one of the 17.17 percent who voted in Allegheny County in the primary election. As I voted on our IVotronic touchscreen voting machine, I wondered: Did my vote get counted accurately?

Sure, on the final screen before I clicked the flashing “vote” button, it did ask me to confirm if my choices were correct. But what about behind the scenes? Inside the machine’s aging hardware and software, is it counting everything correctly?

Our voting machines in Allegheny County were purchased when I was in middle school in Fayette County — to give that perspective, I am now 25 years old and a college graduate.

When I voted in Fayette County in previous elections, I had two choices: to vote on a machine (it was a different machine than the one used in Pittsburgh) or on a paper ballot. Although some people may think voting on a machine is “the future,” at my polling place, the lines for the machines are usually long and cumbersome. In choosing paper, I used to walk up to the poll workers, get my paper ballot, vote and put it in the scanner, all in less time than the machine users.

If you are also wondering if the machine is counting accurately, I have four words for you: voter-verified paper ballot.

When you vote on a paper ballot, your vote is as absolutely secret as it is on a machine. You put your own ballot into a scanner, and it tabulates your vote. Your vote on paper has the extra security of it having an audit trail. At every election, a small sample of the paper ballots can be audited to see that the system is counting correctly. If the election results are ever in doubt, officials can go to the paper ballots and recount them.

Unfortunately, that cannot happen with Allegheny County's aging “futuristic” computer machine. If the election results are ever in doubt they just print out the same results again, using the same ancient software, with no way to be certain it hasn’t been compromised. ADAM KUBIZNA

Oakwood