“Easy” does not equal “Correct”
Bruce Schneier points out this EFF article on electronic voting machine recounts, which is good overall, but fails to hammer home the biggest point, I think. “Easy”, here is only a secondary goal, after “Correct” (or, more properly, “Verifiably Correct”). The first priority is that the count match the intent of the voters. Only AFTER that goal is met to the best of our ability can we start thinking about ways to make the processes of voting and counting easier or faster. “Easy” is being given too much weight, at the expense of “Correct”.
If you have a hole in your wall, it’s pretty easy to put duct tape over the hole to keep the wind out.
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/01/election_recoun.html
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/002222.php
