A resurfaced C-SPAN video from 2004 shows Jerry Nadler fiercely opposing paper-based ballots during a Capitol Hill hearing.
At the hearing, a member of the public spoke in support of paper ballots, citing research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which said hand-counted paper ballots to be “among the most reliable” voting methods.
But Nadler didn’t agree with that claim.
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“Paper ballots are extremely susceptible to fraud,” he said.
“And at least with the old clunky voting machines that we have in New York, the deliberate fraud is way down compared to paper.”
“When the machines break down, they vote on paper – they’ve had real problems,” he warned.
Nadler said “there’s gotta be a way of getting the best of our methodologies,” but offered no suggestion for an alternative voting method.
The woman from the audience doubled down on her support of paper ballots, “at least if there’s a miscount, you can discover it.”
“You can’t discover miscounts with these machines.”
Nadler then suggested an “optical scan with paper” as a compromise solution.
This method is where paper ballots are scanned electronically to count the votes.
“I want a paper trail; I want paper somewhere,” Nadler said.
“But pure paper with no machines? I can show you experience which would make your head spin.”
WATCH:
Nypost.com reports: Last week, however, Nadler tweeted a message slamming Trump’s stance on Michigan sending out applications for absentee ballots, writing “there’s nothing rogue about encouraging Americans to participate in elections — you’re just worried that they won’t vote for you.”
On Wednesday morning, Nadler responded to the video after Eric Trump tweeted it out.
“Eric! So good to hear from you, I had forgotten all about you but hope you are doing okay,” Nadler’s tweet read, “Love the video of me talking about the need for a paper trail to ensure voting integrity. Mail-in or absentee ballots are a paper trail used by, among others, our men and women in uniform.”
