Voting Equipment and Ballots

Voting machine failures stood front and center in the recount of the 2000 presidential election vote in Florida. The election dispute between George Bush and Al Gore exposed problems in the absentee and registration systems, in the management of polling places, and even in the definition of a vote in Florida’s law. However, a single image captured the heart of the election controversy: Judge Robert Rosenberg of Broward County Canvassing Board inspecting punch-card ballots with a magnifying glass to determine whether the card indicated a vote for Bush, a vote for Gore, or one of the many ambiguous hanging, dangling, or pregnant chads. The technology for recording and tabulating votes had failed, plain and simple, and the determination of the Presidential election hung in the balance. In an age of ever-greater computing innovations and power, America was still using 1960s computer technology — punch-cards — to vote. Surely, there was a better, more reliable way.