Until this last primary election, we used the optically-read ballots here -- with the ovals on them that you filled in with pencil. They were very convenient, and fully suitable for recounts, as you point out, and the voter got a receipt, with the ballot number on it.(The new machines are slightly easier to use but lack the paper trail, of course).
OTOH, it's not such a big deal to count paper-trail 'coupons' by hand since recounts aren't that frequent, and very-rarely statewide.
OTOH, it's not such a big deal to count paper-trail 'coupons' by hand since recounts aren't that frequent, and very-rarely statewide. Consider a simple hypothetical: a number of voting machines has been altered to count 10% of Bush votes and 50% of Nader votes as Kerry votes. How would such a thing be detected? Unless one happens to do a recount in an area served by such a machine, I would think such cheating would completely escape notice.