One Organization Did The Math And It Seems The Numbers Behind Sen. Mitch McConnell's Reelection

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54. A good compromise - paper ballots with scanning machines

But only if there is a requirement to hand count the paper ballots as a check on the scanners.

My county has used paper ballots for over thirty years. The scanners are set that if a ballot is not read as valid, or has an under or over vote, the machines kick the ballot back immediately so that the voter has a check to repair their ballot. If needed they can get a new ballot and re-vote.

In 2000 during the recount, Leon County (where I live) completed their recount in only a few hours. The Supervisor of Elections assisted other counties in doing their recounts. Our neighboring county, Gadsden, did not have scanners at each polling place, therefore they did not have the option of allowing voters to repair their defective ballots. They were among the counties with the highest number of defective ballots that were not counted. The Leon Supervisor showed them how to do that and since the number of ballots that could not be counted has dropped drastically.

Even with all of that, I do not necessarily trust the count on the scanning machines. They can easily be hacked if the security around the machines is not good or if the people running the machines are not trustworthy. That's why I support had counting the ballots to verify the numbers on the machines. It's good insurance.

ETA - The scanned results can be almost immediately released as preliminary numbers, but the final count should be based on the hand counts. That way, we get the immediate fix - but in the long run we know who really won without a doubt.