(#6326) I am sorry to say but I don't trust voting machines anymore!

      For me, if it isn't a paper ballot with an identification number on it I just won't trust it. Sad to say in our technology age but it has increasingly become a doubt that electronic voting cannot be hacked and changed. Electronic voting is too complicated for me to be assured that it is secure. With a paper ballot I can take a picture of it with my marks including the ballot number to be assured that I could prove my votes if needed. With electronic votes cast I don't know what happens to them after I leave the voting booth. If the voting booth would print out a copy or summary of the votes cast then I would be less in doubt as to their security.
     However, the ballot in hand with a picture taken of it is still for me the only secure option. Our world is so entangled in power grabs that nothing can be left to trust if we cannot audit or verify in some fool proof way. What we have here in California and surely other states as well is a tracking method for our mail in ballots. I take a picture of my ballot and the state also informs me when the ballot reaches the county elections office and its addition to the verified received tally. The California Secretary of State administers the election process so we Californians are assured that our ballots are safe. If I knew more about voting machines and the security they should have maybe I wouldn't be so skeptical of them but I am not assured at this time.
     With all the way electronics can be manipulated it just makes good common sense not to trust new technology over time honored hand filled out ballots. It takes no time at all to fill out a ballot and follow the steps to assure the ballot is mailed in accordance with procedures. There is even free mailing for the envelope. It is my fear that as with other times when electronic voting was used that some were assured of the results before they came in. Now I know confidence is one thing but smugness with it is a bridge too far for me not to be suspicious. There are too many. with too much on the line who not only own the electronic machines but also those who engineer them to not suspect that they could in some nefarious way make changes to votes cast on their machines. I know it sounds conspiratorial but the stakes are too high for me to take a chance thus the hand filled out ballot, picture taken, and then the mailed ballot with tracking is for me.