Computer scientists and election reform advocates trust hand counts, but election administrators do not.
I have done three video reports on the Wisconsin recount so far. This article at Medium - summarizes what I found:
Election experts and scientists keep telling us that we need to count on paper because we can always go back and examine those paper ballots. J. Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science at the University of Michigan summed up one of the most important take-aways from the recount, “ ‘Also shocking is how unlikely states are to look at any of the paper, even in a surprising and close election like this,’ Halderman said.”
Here are the links to the three video pieces I produced for alternet.org:
Part 1 - How Accurate are the Voting Machines? (Brown County Wisconsin)
Part 2 - Racine County Clerk Refuses to Acknowledge Problems With the Count
Part 3 - The Machines are Not Secure and Some of Them are Wireless
I encourage you to watch these pieces - you will get a much better sense of what a hand count is like than from just reading an article about it.