TFA may have been about a hand recount, but the comment I was originally responding to seemed to suggest the existence of paper ballots negated the incentive to tamper with the computers.
Do those vote by mail states that audit audit only mail ballots? Or also ballots tallied at polling places? Because there are very few states that are mail-only; and mail ballots typically reflect different demographics and thus different voting tendencies than in-person ballots.
My state tallies paper ballots by machine, and doesn’t even show me whether it read my ballot correctly. I just have to take it on faith that tallies are correct and never tampered with.
Sorry, I misread you. Paper ballots don't eliminate incentives for tampering, but they certainly lessen them, and make it harder. Paper ballots can be recounted, by hand if need be, and audited (risk limiting audits). Nothing will eliminate the incentive to tamper if ideology pushes it (Qanon) or policy positions are religious doctrine, but very unpopular (use imagination). We can certainly decrease the incentives.
My state (CO) emails me when my ballot is in the mail, when they receive it back from me, and after it's counted. Practices vary, I guess.
This raises another question: what happens to mail in ballots of Trump and Project 2025 destroy or privatize the USPS?
Telling you the ballot has been counted isn’t the same as counting it, counting it correctly, or protecting the count from tampering.
Paper ballots and the possibility of a recount decreases the tampering incentive only if there’s sufficient reason to expect a recount. Given the rarity of recounts, that doesn’t seem to me like much of a deterrent.
ETA: re mail-in ballots and the USPS, that’s an incentive to vote in person if you can. It’s a legit concern for those for whom voting in person is problematic. I’m personally far more worried about the integrity of the count — and frankly, whether we’ll get to vote in a “free and fair” election at all. After all, even Russia still has “elections”.
Do those vote by mail states that audit audit only mail ballots? Or also ballots tallied at polling places? Because there are very few states that are mail-only; and mail ballots typically reflect different demographics and thus different voting tendencies than in-person ballots.
My state tallies paper ballots by machine, and doesn’t even show me whether it read my ballot correctly. I just have to take it on faith that tallies are correct and never tampered with.