In Praise of a Democracy on Paper ⇥ theglobeandmail.com

The Globe and Mail’s editorial board:

There are, of course, practical arguments in favour of the system used for federal elections. Paper ballots cannot be hacked. A hand-count allows for maximum transparency.

But the best reason for a paper ballot is not practical at all. It is more fundamental. A paper ballot gives physical form to democracy. The choice literally sits in a voter’s hand.

I will confess to having an immediately negative reaction to what seems like a saccharine take. Then I thought about it a little bit more and I came around. When everything around us is based on pixels and transistors, the simple action of marking a little bit of paper feels somehow more direct.

And it is not even particularly slow, to boot. We knew within a few hours of polls closing that the Liberal party would get the most votes in a dramatic turnaround over the past few months.