Machines will be with us in every state for the foreseeable future.

Jim Womack, NCEIT President, September 16th, 2025

The following is a response to Don's inquiry on the elimination of machines and employing hand counting of ballots.

Thanks for the note, Don.

While I agree completely that evil people will seek ways to corrupt the election process, and that machines are one channel in which evil intentions can be manifest.

The ultimate objective of free and fair elections can be achieved a number of ways- with or without the use of machines.  However, complex ballot styles and protection of chain of custody of election artifacts mitigate against fully manual processes.  Moreover, it is imperative- for public confidence in election outcomes-that the counting be completed within hours after the polls close.  That can only be achieved within today's statutory and operational environments by using machines to do the complex counting.  If we were to outlaw the use of machines, then we would also have to significantly increase the costs of conducting elections, with much greater decentralization of voting (precincts sized at around 1500-2000 voters max).  We would have to outlaw early voting and mail-in balloting or alter them so severely that citizens (and the many leftist lawyers) would object to the restrictions.

The present compromise is to have machines to rapidly count and compile results- machines that are not connected to the internet in many if not most locales.  If we improve L&A testing and audit the machines and the election artifacts, then speed and confidence are both realized.  We have a ways to go in getting the processes properly scrutinized and managed, but we are making progress.  For these reasons, machines will be with us in every state for the foreseeable future.

Jim Womack

September 16th, 2025