How does a paper trail from a voting machine undermine or compromise the secret ballot?

Answer 1

In Nevada (where we use a electronic voting machine), the secret ballot is not undermined with the paper trail. When you go into the voting booth, your credentials are checked. After that (assuming they are valid), you are given a standard authorization card. These cards are used by many people throughout the day, and cannot be traced back to any one person. After you have made your vote selections, the machine gives you one final chance to change any vote before it is officially recorded. When you finalize your vote, the results are recorded electronically, as well as printed on a piece of paper (a paper roll, like from a cash register). The authorization card # is printed on the paper copy, but since the card # is used by many people, no one vote can be traced back to an individual person.

If the voting machine is not electronic, then a person could leave behind forensic evidence, e.g. a fingerprint or sweat. That may undermine the secret ballot. However, this is usually offset by the large amount of ballots being cast. Remember that real life forensics is not like what you see on CSI. There is no magical machine that will automatically scan documents for fingerprints & compare them with a database. The work has to be done by expert lab techs, and they can spend hours, if not days, on a single fingerprint.

Answer 2

Interesting! Does the paper trail have the names of the voters next to the people they voted for or is it just a list of the people voted and a number that, if counted, should correspond to the number of people who voted? If that's the case, then I don't see how it could compromise the secret ballot since the voter is still secret. However, if the numbers don't add up, I don't know what could be done to fix it except to have the vote again, which I don't think happens.

Answer 3

You know who doesnt want paper trails for voting because it violates their right to a private vote?

The same people who are okay with the government listening in on their phone calls because after all they have nothing to hide.

Answer 4

Many of the machines used in recent years have a data port that uses an electronic card that stores the votes cast. It was proven that these storage cards could and do have hidden programs to tilt the votes cast to favor whoever pays the most. Check the link for more details.

Answer 5

If it is in the form of a receipt it does because the person can either be paid or harassed because of it.If it is an anonymous paper kept by the election board it does not.