Idiocy of voting technology

I’ve been musing privately of late over the inane introduction of electronic voting in the US. You can get all sorts of electronic gadgets these days, but research shows that most of them end up idle at the back of a cupboard.
“Why on earth,” I keep asking myself, “do you ignore a tried and true method of registering a vote and toy with gadgets?”
Fair enough that those of us from countries aligned with the British Commonwealth are considered a tad backwards to some Americans. It took us years to before we made cars with chromium fins. Some of us didn’t even have TV before the late 1950s.
Not that there is a blanket repudiation of technology under British influence, more a tendency to stick with what works. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it…
Voting is one of those areas we, that is Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other places, where simple is still seen as best.
No need expensive network infrastructure, no machines, computers, punches or things that can go wrong. We don’t tempt Murphy’s or Sod’s law. If it can go wrong it will, and voting is too important.
Polling places supply ‘hard copy’ lists of enrolled voters. Officials use a good old wooden rule to sight across the page, Surname, given name and address. Then they use a good old pen to mark through the details once a ballot paper is issued.
Note: Ballot PAPER. Yes a piece of ordinary paper with the candidates names printed on and handy little boxes to tick or number to signify the voters choice. Voters can mark these pieces of paper with a pen or pencil supplied or their own.
When the polls close officials gather these papers, in the presence of scrutineers, and separate them, in the first instance to piles representing the first preference the voter has marked on the paper.
True the results are fed into a computer once the count has been completed to each level, but afterwards there are these bits of paper which act like a receipt, something which can be checked and rechecked.
Sure things can go wrong, a pen can run out of ink or a lead break on a pencil, but I’m sure these officials, clerical types that they are, have plenty of backup in that department.
The thing is it is uncomplicated, it works and it costs a fraction of the price to set up and maintain.
What I really enjoy about paper ballots, having had the opportunity to scrutineer a few times, are the terse messages written on some papers. It’s a waste of time of course, as they go into an invalid vote pile. But they are entertaining for those who do see them.
Come on America; take a step back from technology to something that really does work. I vote for paper and pen voting!