If you thought the Missouri Senate’s right-wing Freedom Caucus has snarled the state’s legislative process, just wait until it gets a foothold in the running of elections.

State Sen. Denny Hoskins, charter member of the small band of ideological nihilists who repeatedly ground legislative business to a halt in Jefferson City this year, stands an overwhelming chance of becoming Missouri’s next secretary of state. As the state’s top election official, the Warrensburg Republican says, he will seek to require that all paper ballots in every state election be counted by hand instead of being optically scanned.

It’s a horrible idea driven by a MAGA persecution fantasy about a problem that doesn’t exist — but very much would if universal hand counting of paper ballots were instituted. Missouri voters of any party who genuinely care about election integrity should think before they reflexively hand over this crucial office to someone who effectively promises electoral chaos.

The reason virtually all large-scale electoral systems around America have gone to electronic systems in recent decades is because hand counting of paper ballots is intrinsically prone to error and (yes) fraud.

Missouri already requires that hand-marked paper ballots be used in elections. Most jurisdictions here (as around the country) use optical scanners to count those ballots. All the electronic equipment involved is legally required to be air gapped — that is, unconnected to the internet or any other network. Missouri also provides for hand counting random samples of precincts to ensure the optical scans are accurate.

Having that paper trail in place is a good system in that it also allows for direct review of voters’ ballots in case of disputed election results and re-counts. But the notion that optical scanning should be replaced by hand counting of paper ballots from start to finish in every election is both unnecessary and unworkable.

So why is Hoskins even suggesting it? Simple: The unsupported claim that election systems are under attack by purveyors of fraud is a core article of faith among followers of Donald Trump (and the politicians who pander to them). The former president has preached for hand-counted ballots because, he falsely claims, optical scanners were manipulated by outside forces to deny him reelection in 2020.

As dozens of courts ruled, this is, categorically, nonsense. Just for good measure, Fox News paid Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems — manufacturer of many of the optical scanning devices used in the U.S. — a whopping $787.5 million in a defamation settlement that included acknowledging it spread those lies about the systems.

Still, some might ask, what would be the harm in just hand counting every ballot, every time?

Plenty. As the Brennan Center for Justice reports, studies have shown that hand counting ballots produces error rates of 25% or more above optically scanning them. This makes sense, given that computers are nearly flawless at tasks like counting, while humans very much aren’t.

And that doesn’t even get into the issue of potential fraud. Optical scanners must be periodically tested and certified to ensure accuracy. What test or certification exists that would prevent a determined partisan from thumbing the scales during a manual counting process?

Then there’s the timeliness issue. It’s ironic that Trump has claimed (falsely) that routine delays in releasing election results are somehow evidence of fraud, because hand counting ballots would extend such delays days or weeks beyond anything that most systems deal with now.

In the 2020 presidential race, Missouri systems processed just under 3 million ballots, with multiple races on each one. Do the math. As state Rep. Barbara Phifer of St. Louis, the Democratic nominee for secretary of state, told The Kansas City Star recently, the process of hand counting all that paper is “incomprehensible.”

Like any Democrat, Phifer faces epic odds against winning a statewide office. On the other hand, we know — because of efficient optical scanning of ballots used in the primaries — that Hoskins won the GOP nomination with under 25% in a crowded field.

Voters of all stripes should consider the fact that that’s hardly a mandate to impose a potentially devastating policy based on nothing but a conspiracy theory.

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