paper ballots is still the absolute best way to vote. It's the most difficult to tamper, and most importantly, simple enough that people can see and understand that it _isn't_ tampered.
I think it’s much easier for a nefarious person or party to make a specific claim (“they threw away my ballot”) and much harder to refute it, against a paper ballot than a machine; “the machine was hacked, but I can’t be more specific”
And the person voting wants to make sure that when they voted for X, that the machine counted that they voted for X.
I think the compromise between these 2 would be that the receipt is very clear who you voted for, but you have to place that receipt into the ballot box in order to cast your vote. This way there is no possible way to prove to your blackmailer that you voted for X. Also, the machine could be able to deal with disabilities (blind? macular degeneration? need lots of time to actually vote?).
I'm sure I'm missing something here. I think that one would want it easy to verify but impossible to "sell" to a 3rd party. If it is encoded into a barcode, or hash string, the average citizen won't be able to verify any of it.
Vote selling/blackmail is possible by taking a picture of your ballot while in the voting booth. One way to reduce that threat is to allow people to create as many ballots as they want while in the booth.
And to restrict people from using their cameras while voting, so there's no way to connect it with the ballot actually deposited. (Yes, they can start recording while in the booth, but what happens before/after the recording period.)
Your election administrators probably have their procedures available online. And everyone is allowed to observe any part of the process. I strongly encourage you to observe and participate. Attending the canvas board meetings are quite illuminating.
Source: long time poll judge and election integrity activist.