If you’ve been around conservatives for any amount of time, you will constantly hear the loudest among them chanting about the need for hand counted paper ballots to replace “the machines” because most elections these days have not been very nice to conservatives lately, particularly in Colorado. The Republican Party even went so far as to propose that as a nationwide policy before the 2024 elections. Whether this is a realistic strategy or not (hint: it’s not), there’s nothing wrong with hand counted paper ballots. It’s a tried-and-true method of counting votes that for the most part works if you have a lot of observers (poll watchers) from opposing points of view, a lot of volunteers, plenty of space to count ballots, a well-trained teller committee and lots of time to count the ballots. In fact, conservatives aren't the only people who say they prefer hand counts because today, the use of machines is under fire by nearly every group of voters, to one extent or the other - and understandably so given the current crop of clandestine vendor implementations that have caused all this ruckus in the first place.
The official EIP position on this issue is that voters ought to be able to count their ballots in any reasonable manner they see fit, be it by the hand counting of paper ballots or by an EIP compliant software solution. However, there are some jurisdictions across the country that have a real problem here. One of these jurisdictions is the state of Colorado, even though the people never got to vote on the issue. The hand counting of paper ballots is now illegal in 61 of the 64 counties in Colorado. The three counties exempt from this mandate have less than 1000 people in them. Here is the relevant statute:
Colorado Senate Bill SB 22-153 Section 10
So in Colorado, the hand counting of paper ballots is effectively illegal because it applies to elections as defined here. They’ve codified the same type of voter disenfranchisement in California.
But here’s the kicker - you would never know this speaking to most conservatives. Instead, they behave like petulant children who insist on getting their way no matter what - when in fact, they never will. Now that the use of machines has been codified into law, the only way to change that is to make new law that will replace that law. And the only way that can happen is if there is a freedom-minded, transparent election promoting majority in the state legislature. Not only is this not the current state of affairs, it probably never will be again in Colorado as long as machines are used for voting that don’t follow the EI protocol.
The fact is, the hand counting of paper ballots is currently not a realistic option in Colorado
So why do these people not recognize this obvious truth? One can only speculate, but at the very least this is not a realistic strategy for addressing the problem moving forward. But there is a way forward:
If the only means of counting ballots in the state is to use
electronic devices, then that’s what people who honestly
want to see a truthful outcome in elections should be working on
But they are not. Instead, they appear to be pouting …
EIP “loves” hand counts. It’s half the protocol. But the other half of the protocol is the proper use of machine counts. If people want machines, but they are outlawed, then the protocol would advocate for paper ballots. If on the other hand paper ballot hand counts are made illegal, then the protocol advocates for machine counts. Even though hand counts have been outlawed in Colorado, there is an electronic solution to this available right now. It’s the electronic version of the Election Integrity Protocol (see here), and it has been proven to work right here in Colorado. Yet most "conservatives" and 100% of the election integrity echo chamber run by grifters continue to shun EIP along with any electronic solution because, well, let’s just say it’s a mystery. It certainly doesn’t make much sense, particularly in Colorado and California.
Getting back to the point, the Republican Party - and the nation as a whole - needs to adopt EIP because it supports the proper use of machines and electronic voting, but it also supports the hand counting of paper ballots. So if people really, really want to love those paper ballots and make them legal again in the future in jurisdictions where they currently are not, they are free to do so.
In the meantime, the electronic form of EIP is the only path forward
But the other even more important point is that EIP isn’t for Republicans. It’s for the entire world, including Democrats, Socialists, Green Party folks, Libertarians, and even Communists. It’s an election protocol that is agnostic with respect to politics, because all it does is guarantee the accurate counting of ballots - no matter who is filling them out. That’s the way it should be, that’s the way it was always supposed to be - but it isn’t that way anymore.
Let the Alarms Ring
The situation has become dire here in Colorado - perhaps more so than anywhere in the nation.
Colorado has become the petri dish for election malfeasance
The citizens of Colorado need to first recognize that and then begin to dismantle the apparatus that has led to this unfortunate condition. EIP fixes all that and brings us back to the truth in elections. Check out the electronic version here.
Please consider adopting it today, as soon as possible before Colorado and the nation falls apart.