Thank you for saying it, Glen Greenwald. They are able to do it in many other countries, and we used to be able to do it here. WTF?
Paper ballots tucked in paper envelopes. No absentee voting, and no early voting either. French voters in Sunday’s presidential election are using and old-school system that has defied calls for more flexibility or modernization.
As France’s 48.8 million voters are invited to choose between President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen, here is a look at how the French election works:
[. . .]
Volunteers count the ballots one by one, by hand. Officials then use state-run software to register and report results.
But legally only the paper counts. If a result is challenged, the paper ballots are recounted manually.
Stella's Place 
There is something to be said about old school paper ballots!
In most of Canada, we still have them. First, there is the whole process of coming in and getting your ballot, while the scrutineer looks at your ID, finds you on the registration list (or goes through the process of adding you), strikes your name off the list and hands you a specially folded ballot, keeping the tear off piece with the number matching the number on the ballot you are given. You go to the voting station, mark your X, return to the scrutineer, who witnesses you putting it into the ballot box.
Once the polls are closed, ballots are counted manually, with every person counting having a second person witnessing and recording the count. The ballots are kept for a certain length of time after the election, before being destroyed – again, under witness.
Even with all the redundancies built in, fraud still happens, people get their votes denied, etc.
From what I understand, some of our larger cities are using vote counting machines, and I’ve even heard of electronic voting starting to happen in some places. I love technology, but for some things, low tech is the better way to go!
LikeLiked by 2 people