MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Election commissioners in Tennessee’s largest county heard Wednesday from voters about the safety and efficiency of hand-marked paper ballots versus electronic voting machines.
The vast majority of Memphis-area voters who commented during an glitch-filled online meeting of the Shelby County Election Commission supported the adoption of a hand-marked paper ballot system over new voting machines to replace aging touch-screen machines.
The commission plans to decide which voting method to use in a future meeting. A decision is expected before upcoming elections in August and November, but it is not clear whether the new system will be in place before those elections.
Supporters of paper ballots and a vote-by-mail system argued they are more secure than electronic machines, which many of the voters believe can be compromised by outside sources and can be susceptible to technical problems. Paper ballots producing a voter-verified paper trail are more reliable than electronic voting machines that don’t provide a paper trail, many voters argued.
Paper ballot backers also argued that they make the voting process safer in the era of coronavirus. Many expressed concerns about the virus spreading as people stand close together in lines at voting places that employ touch screen voting machines used by many people, one after the other.
The election commission is considering whether to get new machines or move to a different paper-based system. Election security advocates have claimed that the outdated touchscreen voting machines currently used in Shelby County are not secure because they do not produce a voter-verifiable paper trail, and security checks and other safeguards are needed to protect the system from outside manipulation.
The online meeting featured technical audio and video glitches. It started a half-hour late and some of the technical problems continued throughout the meeting.
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