Should we trust any organization to create a vote counting machine if they aren't US military?

Most voting machines are "air gapped."  When you go into your precinct to vote, the ballot counting machine is not hooked up to the internet.  The results at the end of the night are downloaded onto the equivalent of a jump drive and then printed out (before being added to the results from other precincts).  

Additionally, many, but not all, states do an audit after the election.  In the audit a handful of precincts are randomly selected for a hand count.  If the hand count is significantly different than the machine count, more precincts are counted (with the potential for the audit to eventually expand into a full recount) if the problem is big enough.

So, while, in theory, you could write a backdoor into the programs that count ballots, it would be very difficult to exploit it given the other security mechanisms in place.  

Maybe the simplest solution is to return to 100% paper ballots and ban all absentee ballots except for active duty military stationed away from their home, their families living with the service member and US Civil Service personnel attached to the US military out of their home location. Also, require government issued photo ID's for voting. However, the SCOTUS declared that a requirement like that is excesive.

There is a way and it must be found before war breaks out in a wonderful country.  Americans cannot trust the Voting Machines.