You have to hang out with election administrators to grok that. Their motivations are not the same as the voters. Their election night prayer is "Please God, don't let this election be close."
They want certainty more than any thing else. For decades, computers were regarded as more accurate, impartial, certain than human tabulators.
Second factor is appropriations. Elections are big money. And like all industrires, there's a revolving door between government and industry.
Admin also want control. Their impulse is to centralize, simplify. Think of the logistics of running 100s of voting sites, 1,000s of precincts. All the training, people, materials, gear that has to be stored, shuttled around, repaired, etc. Moving to voting computers, reducing head count, moving to central count seemed like a huge win. (But you and I people computer people, we know they just traded problems.)
They want certainty more than any thing else. For decades, computers were regarded as more accurate, impartial, certain than human tabulators.
Second factor is appropriations. Elections are big money. And like all industrires, there's a revolving door between government and industry.
Admin also want control. Their impulse is to centralize, simplify. Think of the logistics of running 100s of voting sites, 1,000s of precincts. All the training, people, materials, gear that has to be stored, shuttled around, repaired, etc. Moving to voting computers, reducing head count, moving to central count seemed like a huge win. (But you and I people computer people, we know they just traded problems.)