All paper ballots (or just mostly paper) makes some insecure

Adding another layer of confusion to the already murky controversy surrounding the voter machine decertification, Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Jack Arrowsmith said this weekend that a “mostly paper ballot election in 2008 is very likely,” according to sources. But he added that at the very least voting machines would have to be employed at polling locations in order to comply with American’s with Disabilities Act requirements.

 “That means almost certainly that we’ll end up with a push for an all mail-in ballot,” said the source. “It could be a real mess. The thing most people don’t talk about is how insecure mail-in ballots are.” 

Arrowsmith addressed a meeting of the Douglas County Republicans on Saturday morning at a meeting attended by Secretary of State Mike Coffman. Coffman quipped that the whole Colorado ballot issues made him wish he was running elections in Iraq rather than in Colorado.  He was greeted with genuine laughter according to the source.  

A mail in ballot presents certain difficulties, said our source. Firstly there is a loss of chain of custody. Once a ballot goes out the door anything can happen to it. Secondly, the likelihood of actually getting caught committing voter fraud goes down, so on a risk/reward basis there is more incentive for Republicans and/or Democrats and/or the Unity Party (whatever they are) to cheat.

There are also so place where the whole process of conducting a mail-in election is soft.  

“My biggest worry is that we end up with the federal government coming in and telling us how to conduct elections at the local level,” concluded the source.