Agreed that the US election process is weird. Keep in mind that each of the 50 states runs its own separate election with its own separate laws, rules, procedures, equipment, and personnel. Generally, state laws only require a recount if the results are very close. Of the 50 states, only a handful had recounts in 2020. A tiny number of votes changed, as one would expect. Georgia was a good example of how machine counts are more accurate than hand counts. https://sos.ga.gov/index.php/elections/historic_first_statewide_audit_of_paper_ballots_upholds_result_of_presidential_race
A 2012 study by Rice University and Clemson University found that “hand counting of votes in postelection audit or recount procedures can result in error rates of up to 2 percent.” In Georgia’s recount, the highest error rate in any county recount was .73%. Most counties found no change in their finally tally. The majority of the remaining counties had changes of fewer than ten ballots.
From the referenced study:
Overall, this study provides valuable quantitative and qualitative evidence that manual post-election auditing is not an error-free process. Depending on the procedure used, as well as the type of ballot counted, manual audits can vary in their accuracy and efficiency, as well as their appearance of validity to the auditors and outside observers. While many argue manual audits are the ‘‘gold standard’’ by which we must evaluate computerized ballot totals due to the insecure nature of such machines, we must be careful to remember that even the most basic tasks performed by humans can and do introduce error into the process.
IIRC, Georgia in 2020 actually used the original machine count because it’s a more reliable number than a hand recount. As far as counting the votes, the systems we have work! Please don’t be taken in by bad-faith Trumpian arguments that falsely allege “doubt” where there is none.
