Maybe everyone should vote by mail, which currently is done by paper ballot.
The current voting machines have problems, and I'd rather use paper ballots today, but let's not make the mistake of thinking that paper ballots are the ideal long-term solution. Remember "hanging chads" and voter confusion caused by the ballot layout in Florida back in 2000?
Don’t use punching machines. Use separate ballots per candidate. The voter selects the ballot for her candidate, folds it and drops it in the ballot box. Simple and secure.
So for locations that have say 50+ positions, with multiple party candidates up for election, you want to print off 100+ ballots and have the voters select and mail out 50 of them separately?
Right now to reduce fraud, many mail in juristicions will have an envelope with a voter and specific ballot type (local districts include different water, power, school, fire, police, etc which may be different from someone on the other side of your street). And the ballot only has the ballot type/combination... the outside is scanned to match the inside, and the inside ballot is then separated/randomized to prevent tracking coordination.
Do you understand how much crap would have to be coordinated between envelopes and ballots to support such a system? We aren't just voting for a single office, in some places it's over 50 offices, with hundreds of candidates.
I have a hard time trusting that my cable bill will get to Comcast on time via the USPS. I've seen unopened UPS and FedEx envelopes left in the street, out in the rain. Voting by mail gives me personally no more faith that my vote will be counted correctly than does a digital voting machine. Voting in person and on paper gives me some level of comfort, but I'm always cynically curious what happens after I leave my polling place.
Voting by mail is fraught with huge problems. Zero proof the person filling it out and mailing it are actually the person they should be. Campaigns often block walk, “helping” people complete their ballots, for example. Also ballots get sent to dead people quite frequently. Voting by mail should only be done for those overseas and hand delivered to a consulate where ID can be verified.
A single person at a polling location committing fraud affects one vote, but a few people committing mail in fraud can affect hundreds or thousands of votes. “Helping” people vote, while not illegal, is definitely ripe for abuse. “Want to keep your social security checks? Here, sign this ballot.”
In person voting with your thumb dipped in dye just like they do in developing countries along with photo ID, along with auditable paper ballots is a sure-fire way to eliminate fraud. Those that oppose this generally are the ones who benefit the most from the current system.
The counter argument is that it is much harder to intercept the mail en-masse than it is to interfere with elections in person.
Every year there are stories of polling places having "technical difficulties" or being "moved at the last minute" in certain neighborhoods. Roads get closed down, signs directing people where to go to vote are not put up, and 4+ hour lines out the door become common place in areas where those in power want to suppress votes.
In contrast, with vote by mail people don't have to take a day off of work, they don't have to wait out in the cold for hours, and they don't have to risk not being able to vote at all if their local polling place decided that all the machines are "no longer working".
Make elections a federal thing, put the FEC in charge of tracking down and providing photo ID (free of course) to every last citizen, and put them in charge as well of maintaining a sufficient number of polling places conveniently located, well staffed, and open enough days/hours to accommodate everyone. Then I'm totally on board. As it is, the issue of requiring photo ID is just used by people who know that it will disproportionately disadvantage people who don't vote like them. Conveniently they also support fewer polling places, located in hard to reach places, open for as few hours as possible. And then they make photo ID more expensive and inconvenient to get as well.
The current voting machines have problems, and I'd rather use paper ballots today, but let's not make the mistake of thinking that paper ballots are the ideal long-term solution. Remember "hanging chads" and voter confusion caused by the ballot layout in Florida back in 2000?