Voter verified paper ballots have become a standard for the conduct of elections.  Standard approved automatic tabulation systems have become the standard for counting these voter verified ballots.  This system works pretty well.  Issues that are outstanding include the following:
 
1.  Secure chain of custody of paper ballots.  The secure chain of custody is always an issue (untrustworthy election officials may swap stacks of marked ballots a la James Michael Curley of Boston long ago or more recently from the punch card ballots.)
 
 2.  Undetectable manipulation of the counting software can achieve a situation where the counting mechanism is able to swap one of every 10 or so votes to a different candidate position randomly until a predetermined vote total limit is reached.
 
Both of these issues can be addressed with a new blockchain based independent voting audit system from WinterGreen Research that provides an unofficial audit of the paper ballot audit trail. Producing a second  unofficial vote count, a vote count available in concert with, and as soon as the unofficial vote count results become available, promotes secure elections.