I agree with your first sentence. We don't yet know how to make an IT-based voting system that is as secure as paper ballots.
Paper ballots have attack surfaces, to be sure. It's just that they don't scale well, and that greatly limits the damage.
I really don't need to know the vote count 9 µsec after the polls close. I really do need to know the vote count is accurate or can be audited if need be.
> voting system that is as secure as paper ballots
I think it's not about security per say. It's more about scrutability. While it may be possible to build a system that is more secure in principle it's a lot harder to build a IT-based voting system that a person from the street can comprehend and scrutinize in a days work.
Paper ballots have attack surfaces, to be sure. It's just that they don't scale well, and that greatly limits the damage.
I really don't need to know the vote count 9 µsec after the polls close. I really do need to know the vote count is accurate or can be audited if need be.