Election security: Colorado pioneers banning of vote counting barcodes

From CNN By Kevin Collier

Citing security concerns, Colorado has become the first state to stop counting ballots with printed barcodes.

The state’s secretary of state told CNN she felt it was a necessary step to ensure Colorado maintains its position as a national leader on election security.

The decision is a further step toward prioritizing the role of human eye, rather than computers to count votes.

In recent years — after researchers have repeatedly demonstrated it’s possible to hack many voting machines in particular circumstances and the US intelligence community detailed Russia’s interference in the 2016 election — both government and industry leaders have reached a general consensus that the US needs to use paper ballots so that elections can be properly audited.

But some states have purchased voting machines that print out a paper receipt with either a QR (short for “quick response”) or a more traditional barcode — something a computer can read, but a human cannot — which can then be easily scanned and tallied to represent a voter’s choices.

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