When there's no paper to recount
If the only record of your vote lives inside the computer, there's nothing independent to recount when something looks wrong. A paper record you can see and check is what makes a real recount or audit even possible.
Explainer video coming soon
A 60-second, plain-language walkthrough of this gap.
What actually happened
Germany's Federal Constitutional Court struck down paperless electronic voting in 2009, ruling that all essential steps of an election must be open to public scrutiny 'without specialist knowledge.' The court pointed to a paper record visible to the voter as a way to satisfy that — because numbers that exist only inside a computer can't be independently checked.
Where it stands today
Good news here: this gap is now rare — about 98% of 2024 U.S. votes were cast on paper, which is why the figure above is low. But where paperless machines remain, there is still nothing to recount, and the constitutional principle (Germany 2009) is current law in Europe. The figure reflects today's statutes.
What exactly would you recount?
If your vote exists only as a number inside a computer, then when a result looks wrong, there's nothing independent to check it against. You're left re-asking the same computer that produced the number in the first place.
A voter-verified paper record — a paper you can see and confirm before it's cast — is the physical ground truth that lives outside the software. It's what makes a recount or a meaningful audit possible at all.
Why it matters
Germany's Federal Constitutional Court struck down paperless voting machines in 2009, holding that all essential steps of an election must be open to public scrutiny "without specialist knowledge," and pointed to a voter-visible paper record as a way to meet that bar. Numbers trapped inside a computer can't be independently verified.
How TrustVoting closes it
Every ballot leaves a voter-verified paper record — ground truth outside the machine — so a recount or risk-limiting audit always has something real to check the count against.
How TrustVoting closes it
TrustVoting produces a voter-verified paper record for every ballot — physical ground truth that exists outside the computer, so a recount or risk-limiting audit always has something real to check the machine against.