I have searched this here and the net, but haven't found an answer. Forgive me if it's already been answered.
If I create a paper wallet at bitaddress.org, I see how to import the private key into Electrum to be able to spend the currency, but I don't see anyway to import the public key to be able to just verify the balance as a read-only type address. Is this (not) possible with Electrum? Thanks.
You don't need Electrum for this. Just use
https://blockchain.info/ - also don't need public key - you need only bitcoin address
