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Electronic voting has presented more than a handful of problems to those states that have decided to go that route. One of the more serious problems is the lack of a written ballot to refer to when the technology breaks down. With paper ballots, machines can scan the vote and keep the count, but if something happens during the tabulation there is still something to go back and hand count.

Machines are also notorious for counting things twice. If a voter inadvertently hits submit twice, the computer may count the vote twice. The voter may not realize, and the election officials will most likely not notice it either.

Another issue comes up with close elections, when a candidate would like to have a recount of the ballots to ensure no errors were made. What do you recount? With an electronic ballot, there is nothing to go back and revise to ensure accuracy.

While in theory electronic voting is a great idea, there are just too many issues that can come up with it. Most states will remain with the paper ballot until an effective system is devised and run through trial and error, and that may be a long time coming.

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