Where I vote machines aren't allowed to be used in voting at all.
this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2026
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Especially as an (ex-) coder you should ask for a paper ballot!
As for whether or not that's possible: Which location are we talking about?
This will depend on your state I believe
Last I knew, it might depend on your individual voting district too. Some places are still implementing over time.
One advantage of mail in voting, is that it always uses a paper ballot.
Not having a paper trail, is strongly being pushed by one party.
Where i voted, you can use a computer to "mark" your ballot. It then prints it out, with your selections visible. You thwn take it to another computer, and insert it inro a slot that scans the ballot. So even with the computer voting, there was a paper trail in this instance.
Where I vote, the machine prints out a paper ballot which is then scanned and counted before I leave.
This is the case in nearly every state in the USA that uses machines. The big exception is Louisiana.
Where I vote, you fill out a paper ballot, you then scan it into a machine, which then spits out a receipt showing that your ballot was scanned and your votes tabulated properly.
you also claimed to be a nurse then asked really basic questions about medicine
How are you an ex-coder but dont know what a server is?
He's also a nurse who asks a concerning number of medical questions.
I know what a server is. It's the person at the restaurant who serves you food. I was more or less ask for people who don''t really understand what it is and how they work. A lot of people think of them is a place where all data is stored (put conspiracy theory in here). And I ask questions to get dialogue going.
boils down to it depends.
in my area, particularly we have paper ballots that then get read by the digital machines, so if there's any type of question about the legitimacy of it, there's the paper trail to follow.
Sir, this is a Wendy's.
My state is paper ballots and a tabulator that just counts the bubbles for each candidate, so everyone gets one. They have a computer based option for accessibility, but I believe that also prints ballots.
I've always been offered one, usually as the default.
Where I vote, you plop your government-issued smartcard in your PC and cryptographically sign your vote. Of course, this raises a privacy concern.
It should ideally be impossible to determine who you voted for, or if you did, while still allowing you to verify your vote got counted. Last I checked, this was an active (and super interesting) area of research in cryptography.
I'm sure it depends where you are. I'm in Canada, where Federal and Provincial elections are paper only, which makes my paranoid coder heart very happy. You get a piece of paper with a names on it and you put an X next to the one you want to vote for.