> Even vote counting machines for paper ballots are a mistake in my view
I think machines are only acceptable if they sort ballots into multiple bins, not if you are using them for the actual count. The bins should be designed so you can casually see that the last ballot to be added is correct for that bin while the machine is working. Something to insert a marker every 100 ballots is probably a good idea, then you can count the number of hundreds, and randomly sample a few of them to check they are correct.
I think machines are only acceptable if they sort ballots into multiple bins, not if you are using them for the actual count. The bins should be designed so you can casually see that the last ballot to be added is correct for that bin while the machine is working. Something to insert a marker every 100 ballots is probably a good idea, then you can count the number of hundreds, and randomly sample a few of them to check they are correct.