Reply #7: Perhaps because the federal government doesn't control voting?

[Igel]

Instead, states have the authority, and delegate it (with some provisos) to local election boards.

States and local BOEs tend to be a bit more strapped for money, so shifting the voting means can be a budget buster. In addition, there *are* federal rules and laws that restrict what the states can do and how they can do it.

Moreover, we have a lot more measures on our elections. I think the election last fall where I voted had something like 55 or 60 things to cast a vote for--bond measures, judges, county/city/state/federal offices, etc., etc. That makes for a long, multipage ballot. In my precinct, it would have to be in Spanish, English, and Vietnamese. And if they run out of them, there'd be a real problem--it's one thing to be short 10 provisional ballots, it's quite another to be short 2 thousand of the most common ballot, or to misgauge the language mix. (And, if you over-allocate budgets, then you pulp a few tons of needless ballots-on-dead-tree.)

It's much simpler where the ballot has 4-5 things on it. Much simpler. Counting that kind of ballot is expensive. It's less expensive than new voting machines, but the costs recur for hand-counting and eventually total more than e-balloting.

Paper ballots never stopped election fraud, in any event. It just made it a bit seedier, and perhaps a bit more difficult.