Nov 2, 2006
Blog Kindergarten: A Bossy Tutorial. Voting Machines.
A Voting Machine is a device that records and counts the electoral choices of each voter through mechanical or electronic means.
Before the late 1800s, voters gathered in the Town Square to drink and
grab-ass and gossip and what was the other thing? Oh right – to shout out their electoral preference for all their neighbors to hear.
The first ballot box was conceived in Italy where ballotta means little ball.
This wooden ballot box utilized marbles which were purposefully placed in the drawer corresponding to the voter’s preference. This was handy because the marbles could alternately be hurled at anyone who wasn’t a white male property owner.
In the United States this ballot box concept shifted slightly to incorporate the ideals of the Australian ballot – which originated in the 1850s as a secret written vote meant to eliminate voter bribery and intimidation. This balloting system allows voters to maintain confidentiality by either writing in their electoral preference on a piece of paper or by selecting the name from a pre-printed ballot.
These paper ballots were then dropped into a common box. Sometimes the ballot boxes looked like this:
And sometimes the ballot boxes looked like this:
And sometimes they even looked like this.
In the early 1900s the mechanical gear-and-lever voting machines were introduced.
The voter activates the machine with a lever that also closes the privacy curtain. Once inside each candidate’s name or ballot issue correlates with a particular lever on the front of the voting machine. As each lever is manipulated, it trips a connected counter wheel causing it to turn one-tenth of a full rotation due to the fact that the counter wheel serves as the ones position of the numerical count for the associated lever which drives a tens counter one-tenth of a rotation for each of its full rotations and hundreds candidate counter lever horizontal choice position wheel Oh Manny please help me.
In the 1960s many voting precincts began utilizing the Punchcard system – in which voters punch holes opposite their candidates with a supplied punch device. This system is very punchy and involves a guy named Chad who’s known for hanging out. Chad also can swing, and is occasionally known to be dimpled or pregnant. Crazy Chad!
Simultaneously many voting districts began to employ Marksense ballot cards & Optical Scanning machines.
With Marksense ballots, voters fill in individual rectangles or circles corresponding to particular candidates and then these are fed into the computer-tabulating device. This system utilizes standardized test technology, so when in doubt the voters select “c”.
Which brings us to the most recent voting machine system: the DRE. Bossy tries not to consider it a really bad omen that this also stands for Digital Rectal Exam.
Except in this case the DRE – Direct Recording Electronic system – functions much like an ATM machine except without the fun cash part. Voters simply enter their selections using a touch screen and then the voter’s choices are stored in a memory cartridge. The DRE system is fully computerized which is really nifty because we all know how reliable computers are.
And speaking of reliability, voters should know that even in 2006 many of the aforementioned voting systems still exist across the United States including paper ballots. The following map details which kind of voting equipment is used across individual counties.
Still confused? Bossy has created her own map to better illustrate:
Everything You Ever Needed To Know About The History Of Voting Machines.
Bossy, your political posts are always the best. This is a fine example of the quality of your posts. Thanks for the history lesson and giggles.