Recently in this column I wrote about the problems with a cashless society, and today I am talking about the hazards of a paperless voting system. I’m sure this looks to some like I am anti-technology, but I’m not. All technologies — from television sets to the Internet — have their downsides, and these should be explored as objectively as possible. Everyone should read an excellent article on this subject in the December issue of The Atlantic magazine. The story, by Jill Leovy, is about Barbara Simons, 76, who has been an ardent fan of paper ballots for the past two decades. Just about everybody, including the League of Women Voters and the ACLU, passed her off as a crackpot for years. In the aftermath of the alleged Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election, however, the guardians of our voting system are taking a second look at Simons’ ideas. It should be noted that Simons, now retired, was a computer engineer for decades.
She was a pioneer in computer science at IBM and was always aware of the possibility of election hacking. She was ignored by the League of Women Voters, the ACLU and other so-called “progressive” organizations to which she belonged.
Simons has been telling public officials across the country that we have a single technology at our disposal that is invulnerable to hacking — paper. Yet, at least 13 states, including high-population states such as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have paperless voting
“There’s no malware that can attack paper,” Simons said. With that many states using paperless machines that don’t have a paper trail, hackers could influence or change election results.
Full Article: You can’t hack paper ballots | News | buffaloreflex.com.