GOP push for hand-counting paper ballots is latest effort to cast doubt on elections

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

After more than a year of baselessly questioning the results of the 2020 election, some Republicans are casting doubt on how ballots are counted, part of a broader movement inspired by former President Donald Trump's lies about election fraud that is undermining confidence in America's vote.

In at least three states -- Utah, New Hampshire and Texas -- Republicans have pushed for banning traditional ballot scanning machines in favor of hand-counting paper ballots, an antiquated process that experts fear could inject error into an election system where very little has been found. Critics also worry that the inevitable delay in results from hand counting would be an opportunity for those looking to sow doubt about the outcome of future contests.

Republicans have already seized on Trump's unfounded claims to launch partisan audits and enact restrictive voting laws ahead of this year's midterms. And now they're targeting the tabulation of votes by suggesting, without evidence, that there's a problem -- even in places where Trump or down-ballot Republicans won in 2020.

One GOP county chair in Texas, for example, said he has "concerns" about the election, even though Trump won the Lone Star State by more than 630,000 votes, and there's no evidence that fraud or irregularities influenced results there or anywhere else.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-push-for-hand-counting-paper-ballots-is-latest-effort-to-cast-doubt-on-elections/ar-AASCGDh

Make sure you check for bamboo while you're at it.

[CrispyQ]

1. I just posted yesterday about a repub woman I know who registers as a dem,

so she can be counted as a democratic election judge. Expect more of these kinds of underhanded moves to suppress the majority.

Also, are they going to hand count every position? Every issue? Do they have a fucking clue how long that will take? We had a four page ballot a few years ago.

My state has vote by mail so we have paper ballots that are scanned. They pull X percent of ballots & do some kind of verification to the computer results. It's all spelled out on the SOS site. Very transparent. CO has a gold standard voting process.

[questionseverything]

9. I went to the web site and was surprised to find most ballots are scanned

And even if recounted would only be re scanned

That’s a trust me method, trusting the scanner maker, the guy that programs the scanners

Colorado is good because it has all paper ballots but if scanners are used they should have open source software not proprietary and getting a hand count should be fairly easy and inexpensive

[Mad_Machine76]

2. Interesting

Now they're in for hand-counted ballots when for years they demanded the machines?

[LaMouffette]

3. Well, since they're installing Republican voting officials at the local levels, hand-counting

will make it easier for them to throw out ballots cast for Democratic candidates.

[crickets]

5. 👆 Bingo. It's a two-pronged approach. nt

[TheRealNorth]

4. I should go back to my college and challenge any scantron test....

That I didn't get an "A" in. Because obviously the fix was in.

[questionseverything]

6. I have been an advocate for hand counted paper ballots for 30+ years

At least the top two federal elections should be hand counted

Georgia had paperless machines for many, many years and the republicans always won

Stacey abrams and others worked for and got a new machine required that produces a paper ballot and democrats won

Imagine if democrats had all the sudden won those senate races but there was no paper to count…

Btw when Georgia did their hand counts the numbers did change, trump picked up some votes, not nearly enough to change the results but there is nothing wrong with having paper to count

[Gore1FL]

7. It's hard to believe a mere 22 years ago they opposed counting ballots. nt

[questionseverything]

8. After gore conceded to bush many newspapers hand counted Florida s ballots

There were 175,000 overvotes the machines didn’t count, these were 2/3 for gore, the oval by his name was punched but his name was also written in at the write in line

This happened mostly in black neighborhoods, probably because people were trying to make their choice clear but to the machine it spoiled the ballot

Of course the intent was clear and hand counting would of determined the correct winner, al gore, which is why the repubs were so desperate to stop the counting