I suggest defining the phrase "paper ballot" (as used in 20-80-20(D)(1) and 20-80-20(G)). In Virginia, "paper ballot" is a legal term of art that refers to ballots that are counted by hand instead of via a mechanical or direct recording process. In other words, an optical scan ballot is not a "paper ballot" in Virginia, but it is a mechanical ballot. Chapter 6 of Title 24.2 categorizes ballots, implicitly, as paper ballots (ballots that are counted by hand), mechanical ballots (ballots such as an optical scan ballot), and direct recording electronic (DRE) machine ballots (such as a touchscreen ballot).

It appears that 20-80-20 uses "paper ballot" to refer to not only purely "paper ballots," as discussed above, but also optical scan ballots. A definition of the different types of ballots, as well as additional explanations about processing each of these types of ballots in a recount, would be helpful.