I just saw something wonderful

[TexasProgresive]

Masterpiece Theatre - Hand marked, hand counted ballots in a national election.

[trotsky]

1. Canada does it; why can't we? n/t

[NYC]

2. I'm in favor of it.

[SoCalDem]

3. Our penchant for faster-bigger-complicated will never allow its return

Elections used to be done this way, with apper ballots and both parties counting, then calling in tally numbers..

but geewhiz technology came along, and they decided that fatser machines would be better.. they were wrong :(

[kansasblue]

4. My friend in London says.....

That their precincts are very small, all paper ballots. Neighbors from each party count and review the vote. Very few problems.

But you need people involved.

[crispini]

6. Yes, I agree. My precinct has about 3000 registered voters.

In a presidential election year it takes us an hour just to get the ballots out of the ballot box. (We have an optical scan system.)

[papau]

7. No problem w/paper in London? - perhaps someone could explain Guardian 2004 London election articles

Latest news and comment
Mayor arrested for electoral fraud
August 12: The mayor of Halton council, Cheshire, has been arrested over allegations he filled in ballots for voters during the local and European elections in June.

Voters may get pin numbers
August 6: Voters could be given a unique pin number to combat electoral fraud if postal ballots replace voting at traditional polling booths, an influential committee of MPs recommended today.

Demand for probe into postal ballot vote-rigging
Postal voting: A dispute over alleged vote-rigging in the local elections is to be contested in the courts after the Liberal Democrats mounted an official challenge to results yesterday.
Postal ballot 'cost candidate seat in Europe'
EU searches for an answer to apathy

Quiet revolution catches voters' imagination
Electoral reform: A new and effective arm of government may be rekindling interest in local councils more than postal ballots and other voting reforms, a conference has heard.

[papau]

5. ? not a big deal or a cure for election theft - only Holt audits are the cure - and they are dead- w

had hand counted ballots in a national election in my first election - 1960 Nixon vs JFK - and the ballots tossed, fake votes recorded, by both sides were incredible - and only discovered months after the election because of the lack of audits meant newspaper investigations which took months and revealed less than just the surface of the theft.

We had a chance for a national mandate for audits - and the left killed that bill because it did not bring back the purity of hand counted ballots in a national election - amazing :-(