[radarsat1]

> what have we achieved other than adding another few layers of middlemen and cost?

and uncertainty. In principle the idea of hitting a button and having the non-networked machine spit out a paper trail that can be electronically counted sounds like a good compromise. But this leaves 1 or potentially 2 sources of uncertainty that are not necessary: (1) that what the machine prints actually corresponds to what you wanted and (2) that the counting machine actually counts what it says on the paper.

(1) is not such a risk if you can verify it visually before submitting. There do exist I believe some ideas in cryptography to allow you carry a record of your vote that allows you to verify it without revealing the choice, these could have interesting application here, but I don't know the pros and cons.

(2) is even a risk in the non-machine case, although it can be mitigated by having multiple independent parties do the count. But it can't easily be done by machine and have the same level of certainty.