Regarding the letter “Paper ballots best way to vote” (Sept. 29, TribLive): So many who offer their opinions either cherry-pick or present incomplete information from unknown sources. If this writer would have only read just a bit more, she would have found this, a headline from NJ Spotlight News Dec. 7, 2020, in reference to Andrew Appel: “He did breakthrough work on hacking voting machines. Now he’s beloved by conspiracy trolls.”
What she forgot to add, and I quote: “the extraordinary research of computer scientist Andrew Appel helped to fuel a wave of new laws that brought SAFER voting machines to states across the country.” The criticism of Appel was pointed at the New Jersey voting system, not the entire country.
She failed to mention experts’ concerns about paper ballots. Allow me to point out a few of those concerns:
1. There is no way to audit the system unless manually counted (human error).
2. Paper ballots are susceptible to damage.
3. Proxy votes could in fact lead to tampering.
The list of cons when using paper ballots is a long one. The decision made to continue our system of voting in Westmoreland County was a good one. The machines are unhackable with a paper accounting, and your mail-in ballots are safe from sabotage. So get out there and vote knowing there was no stolen election, nor will there be!
JoAnn Seabol
Greensburg