It’s 2020. Should Americans really still be voting with pen and paper? The answer, amplified by last week’s meltdown in Iowa, is a resounding “yes.”
The one bit of good news amid all the bad: There’s a paper trail. Because precinct captains kept handwritten tallies of the outcome, voters can expect a reliable analog answer in the end— no matter how dysfunctional the digital system that delayed it.
Election security experts have been insisting on backup paper ballots for votes everywhere, though it’s likely eight states will still be paperless come November’s presidential race.
A stolen election is not the only risk. Democracy could be undermined even if an election isn’t stolen but Americans believe it has been.
The Iowa fiasco appears to be the result of maladministration rather than malice, yet the confusion after caucus night opened an information void that quickly filled with untamed speculation and conspiracy theories.