These are questions with a long history of debate, but the answer
to both of those questions is YES—Every Vote Counts!
“Why Every Vote Counts“…explains why you need to show up and voice your opinion on election day.
The right to vote is one of our most important civil liberties and those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must support the vehicle of freedom. Voting is an obligation that protects the liberties we enjoy.
“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.”
– John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963)
The following is a glossary of terms from U.S. Politics
| Absentee Voting | Absentee voting allows voters who cannot come to polling places a means to cast a ballot. A variety of circumstances, including residency abroad, illness, travel or military service, could prevent voters from coming to the polls on Election Day. Absentee ballots permit registered voters to mail in their votes. The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, a federal law, governs absentee voting in presidential elections. Absentee voting rules for all other elections are set by the states, and vary. In Oregon, all elections are conducted by mail, but voters have the option of voting in person at county polling stations. |
| Ballot | a piece of paper listing the candidates running for office. A ballot is used to cast a vote. The word ballot comes from the Italian word, ballota (meaning “little colored ball”), because votes were originally cast using balls. In ancient Athens, each voter was given a small clay ball, and the voter would drop the ball into their candidate’s clay pot, or ballot box. The practice of using balls to cast votes continued up until the late 19th century, well after more advanced voting machines were invented. |
| Ballot Box | a box in which votes are placed. |
| Ballot Initiative | Ballot initiatives are an example of direct democracy in the United States, in which citizens may propose legislative measures or amendments to state constitutions. Some initiatives propose the repeal of existing state laws. States vary in the number of signatures they require to place an initiative on the ballot. These initiatives (also called “propositions” in some states) are subject to approval, by a simple majority in most, but not all cases. |
| Blackball | In the 19th century, to vote for someone’s membership in to a secret society, a voter was given two balls: a white ball and a black ball. To vote in favor of the candidate’s membership, the voter would drop the white ball into a box. To vote against a candidate, the voter would deposit the black ball. The term is still used today to mean to exclude someone. |
| Beauty Contest | A preliminary vote usually taken early in the electoral process within a party; it expresses a non-binding preference for one or another of the party’s candidates. |
| Bill of Rights | the Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution. These amendments were ratified on December 15, 1791. The Bill of Rights was proposed to ensure that individuals would have civil rights and could avoid the tyranny of an overly-powerful central government. |
| Bipartisan | supported by members of the two major political parties (the Democrats and the Republicans). |
| Bicameral | consisting of two legislative branches, like the US Congress, which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. |
| Blanket Primary | a primary election in which the names of all the candidates for all the parties are on one ballot. |
| Blog | Short for weblog, a blog is an unedited online journal. Candidates use blogs to tell users of their Web sites about their activities. Others use blogs to follow the development of campaign issues or events. Political blogs are created by “bloggers,” individuals who post commentary and news from their own perspective. Political blogs, like blogs in general, reflect a broad spectrum of opinion. |
| Blue State | Blue state is a term used to refer to a U.S. state where the majority of voters usually support Democratic candidates. |
| Buckley v. Valeo | The legal challenge Buckley v. Valeo resulted in a landmark 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision on campaign finance law that upheld the Federal Election Campaign Act’s financial disclosure requirements, contribution limits and provision for public funding of presidential election campaigns. The court struck down spending limits in the law, except for the limits accepted voluntarily by presidential candidates who receive public funds. Thus, the ruling allowed for unlimited spending by congressional candidates (they do not receive public funds) and by persons or groups who campaign for or against a candidate, but who do not coordinate their activities with any candidate or campaign. The ruling also said that candidates who do not receive public money do not have to limit campaign spending of their own personal funds. |
| Butterfly Ballot | a type of paper ballot in which the actual voting is done by the central fold of a two-page, pamphlet-like ballot (the two open pages are like a butterfly’s wings; the voting is done where the butterfly’s body would be). |
| Campaign | a series of political actions (like advertisements, public appearances, and debates) that are used to help a candidate get elected to office. |
| Candidate | a person who is running for an office. |
| Caucus | A caucus is a meeting at the local level in which registered members of a political party in a city, town or county gather to express support for a candidate. For statewide or national offices, those recommendations are combined to determine the state party nominee. The term also is applied to a group of party members that meets to plan policy. Two well-known examples of such groups are the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, whose members discuss and advance the interests of their respective constituencies. |
| Chad | a tiny bit of paper that is punched from a ballot using a punch-type mechanical voting machine. |
| Challenger | A challenger is a candidate running against a person who currently holds the position (the incumbent). |
| Closed Primary | Candidates from the two major political parties (Democratic and Republican) compete to be their party’s nominee for an office in a primary election. Closed primaries are restricted to voters registered as a member of the party holding the election. Unaffiliated voters receive ballots for other measures and nonpartisan contests that occur on the same date. |
| Coattails | The expression “coattails” is an allusion to the rear panels (“tails”) of a man’s coat. In American politics, it refers to the ability of a popular officeholder or candidate for office, on the strength of his or her own popularity, to increase the chances for victory of other candidates of the same political party. This candidate is said to carry others to victory on his or her coattails. |
| Congress | the US Congress, which makes the country’s laws, is divided into the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are currently 100 Senators (2 from each state) and 435 members of the House of Representatives (Representatives are divided by population among the states, with each state having at least 1 representative). |
| Congressional District | an area within a state from which a member of the House of Representatives is elected. There are 435 Congressional districts. Each district has about 570,000 people. Seats (positions) in the House of Representatives are reapportioned every 10 years; since the number of Representatives is set to 435, some areas lose Representatives and others gain some. |
| Conservative | people who generally like to uphold current conditions and oppose changes. Conservatives are often referred to as the right wing. |
| Constituency | The people a government official represents make up his or her constituency. The term is sometimes is used to refer only to those individuals who voted to elect the official. The president’s constituency is composed of all Americans; a mayor’s constituency is the people who reside in the town or city. |
| Convention | In presidential election years, after the conclusion of state primaries and caucuses, the political parties gather to select a presidential nominee – usually the candidate who secured the support of the most convention delegates, based on victories in primary elections. The presidential nominee usually chooses a running mate to be the candidate for vice president, but the presidential nominee can throw open the vice presidential selection process to the convention delegates without making a recommendation. |
| Convention Bounce | An increase in a presidential candidate’s popularity, as indicated by public-opinion polls, in the days immediately following his or her nomination for office at the Republican or Democratic national conventions. |
| Debate | A structured discussion involving two or more opposing sides of an issue is a debate. In American politics in recent years, debates have come to be associated with televised programs at which candidates present their own and their party’s views, in response to questions from the media or members of the audience. Debates also may be held via radio, the Internet or at a community meeting place. They can be held among those who seek elective office at all levels of government. |
| Delegate | a person who is chosen to represent a local political party at a political convention. |
| Democrat | a person who belongs to the Democratic political party. |
| Democratic Party | a major US political party. The symbol of the Democratic party is the donkey. The first Democratic US President was Andrew Jackson. |
| Democracy | a form of government in which people hold the power, either by voting for measures directly or by voting for representatives who vote for them. The word democracy comes from the Greek language; in Greek, demos means “people” and kratos mean “power.” In a democracy, the power of the government is in the hands of its people. |
| Divided Government | A situation in which the U.S. president is a member of one political party and at least one chamber of Congress (either the Senate or the House of Representatives) is controlled by the opposite party is called a divided government. This situation also can exist at the state level, with one party controlling the governorship and another controlling the state legislature. Divided government occurs frequently in the U.S. political system. |
| Election | a process in which people vote to choose a leader or to decide an issue. |
Election Assistance Commission | Established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002, the Election Assistance Commission serves primarily as a national clearinghouse and resource for information on elections. It also reviews federal election administration and procedures. |
| Electoral College | The president and vice president are selected through the electoral college system, which gives each state the same number of electoral votes as it has members of Congress. The District of Columbia also gets three electoral votes. Of the total 538 votes, a candidate for president must receive 270 to win. |
| Executive Branch | the part of the US government that administers the laws and other affairs of the government; it includes the President (also called the Chief Executive), the President’s staff, executive agencies (the Office of Management and Budget, the National Security Council, etc.) and Cabinet departments (like the State Department, the Dept. of Defense, the Dept. of Agriculture, etc.). |
| Exit Poll | an informal poll taken as people leave the voting booth. Exit polls are used to predict the outcome of the election before the polls are closed. |
| Favorite Sons | For decades, in a practice lasting well into the 1960s, governors, senators and other prominent figures filed as presidential candidates in their home states only, won party primaries and then led delegations to the nominating convention. Historically, “favorite sons” influenced platforms and the process by trading their delegate votes for concessions from front-running candidates. The term also is used more broadly to describe a state’s most illustrious politicians. |
| Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) | The 1971 law that governs the financing of federal elections, the Federal Election Campaign was amended in 1974, 1976 and 1979. The act requires candidates and political committees to disclose the sources of their funding and how they spend their money; it regulates the contributions received and expenditures made during federal election campaigns; and it governs the public funding of presidential elections. |
| Federal Election Commission (FEC) | The Federal Election Commission is an independent regulatory agency charged with administering and enforcing federal campaign finance law. The FEC consists of six commissioners appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. The FEC was established by the 1974 amendment of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. |
| Front-loading | The practice of scheduling state party caucuses and state primary elections earlier and earlier in advance of the general election is called front-loading. By moving their primaries to early dates, states hope to lend decisive momentum to one or two presidential candidates and thus have disproportionate influence on each party’s nomination. “Rear-loading” refers to the intense activity at the end of the yearlong cycle — just prior to the election — which includes a series of nationally televised debates, a flurry of television ads and extensive campaign travel on the part of the presidential candidates. |
| Front Runner | A candidate in any election or nomination process who is considered most popular or most likely to win is called the front runner. |
| General Election | an election that is being held throughout the country on the same day. |
| Gerrymandering | a process in which a voting district is broken up or the physical boundaries of a voting district are changed in order to make it easier for one political party to win future elections. The term gerrymander was coined in 1812 when a county in Massachusetts was redistricted into a salamander-like shape by Gov. Elbridge Gerry for political purposes. His last name was combined with the word salamander to get “gerrymander.” |
| Hanging Chad | a chad is a tiny bit of paper that is punched from a ballot using a punch-type mechanical voting machine. A hanging chad is a chad that did not completely detach from the ballot. When there is a hanging chad, that vote may not be counted correctly. |
| Hard Money / Soft Money | Hard money and soft money are terms used to differentiate between campaign funding that is, and is not, regulated under federal campaign finance law. Hard money describes donations by individuals and groups made directly to political candidates running for federal office. Such contributions are restricted by law. Soft money refers to donations not regulated by law that can be spent only on civic activities such as voter-registration drives, party-building activities, administrative costs and in support of state and local candidates. “Soft money” contributions, by law, may not be used to support directly a candidate for federal office. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 upheld congressional restrictions passed in 2002 on soft money contributions. |
| Hatch Act | The Hatch Act places restrictions on political activity by employees of the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, District of Columbia government, and state and local employees who work in connection with federally funded programs. Under the act, employees are permitted to contribute to a candidate’s campaign, but are restricted from using official authority to influence an election, including soliciting or receiving political contributions, and engaging in political activity while on duty, which includes wearing political buttons. Employees may run for office in a nonpartisan election, such as many school board elections, but are prohibited from running in a partisan election. |
| Help America Vote Act (HAVA) | Congress passed HAVA to address voting problems encountered in the 2000 presidential election. The act encourages state and local governments to eliminate punch-card and lever voting machines. Under HAVA, states have received $2.9 billion since 2003 to improve their elections processes. The law also established the Election Assistance Commission to provide support to the administration of federal elections, as well as election laws and programs. |
| Horse Race | Used as a metaphor for an election campaign, “horse race” is used to describe a close contest and conveys the feeling of excitement that people experience when watching a sporting event. |
| House of Representatives | the House of Representatives is part of Congress; they propose and vote on legislation (laws). There are 435 members of the House of Representatives (divided by population among the states, with each state having at least 1 representative). There are 435 Congressional districts. Each district has about 570,000 people. Seats (positions) in the House of Representatives are reapportioned every 10 years; since the number of Representatives is set to 435, some areas lose Representatives and others gain some. Representatives are elected to a term of 2 years. |
| Incumbent | An individual currently holding a position is the incumbent. Historically, incumbents have enjoyed a better-than-average chance of being re-elected. |
| Independent | A candidate or voter not affiliated with a particular political party is termed an independent. |
| Judicial Branch | The part of the US government that settles disputes and administers justice. The judicial branch is made up of the court system, including US District Courts, many Federal courts, the US Court of Appeals (also called the Federal Circuit Courts), and the Supreme Court. |
| Lame Duck | The term lame duck refers to an elected official who has lost an election, or soon will be leaving office, during the period between the election and the date a successor will take over. Such an individual is in a weakened position politically due to the impending expiration of his or her term. |
| Landslide | A victory in which one candidate’s votes far surpass those of other candidates is called a landslide. |
| Legislative Branch | the part of the US government that makes the laws and appropriates funds. The Legislative Branch includes the US House of Representative and Senate (plus congressional staffs and committees) plus support agencies (like the General Accounting Office, the Congressional Budget Office, the Library of Congress, etc.). |
| Liberal | people who generally like to reform current conditions. Liberals are often referred to as the left wing. |
| Libertarian | a person who belongs to the Libertarian political party. |
| Lobbyist | people who are associated with groups (like labor unions, corporations, etc.) and who try to persuade members of the government (like members of Congress) to enact legislation that would benefit their group. |
| Majority | more than half of the votes. |
| Matching Funds or Public Funding | Public money can be given to presidential candidates that “matches” funds they have raised privately from individuals. Contributions from individuals in which the aggregate amount contributed by the individual is $250 or less are eligible to be matched on a dollar- for-dollar basis from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. This fund includes proceeds from the voluntary check-off of $3 per person from income tax returns of eligible taxpayers. |
| McCain-Feingold Law | Formally titled the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, the McCain-Feingold Law is named after its two chief Senate sponsors, John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, and Russell Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin, who sought to remove “soft money” as an influence on candidates running for federal office. The law eliminated “loopholes” (or legislative oversights) that in the past allowed the use of soft money to aid candidates running for federal office. |
| midterm election | a general election that does not coincide with a presidential election year, but occurs two years into the term of a president. In a midterm election, some members of the US Senate, all members of the House of Representatives, and many state and local positions are voted on. |
| Motor-Voter Bill | a bill passed by Congress in 1993 that lets US citizens register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license. |
| Negative Ads | Negative advertisements that try to persuade voters to choose a candidate by making the opposing candidate look bad, by attacking either the opponent’s character or record on the issues. |
| Nominee | A person selected by others for election to office is the nominee. Nominees may be selected in primary elections or caucuses. When only one candidate from a party has filed to run for a political office, that candidate becomes the party’s nominee without any further selection process. |
| Open Primary | An open primary is one in which all registered voters may vote, regardless of whether they are registered as Democrats, Republicans or Independents. |
| Platform | In the context of U.S. presidential politics, platform refers to a political party’s formal written statement of its principles and goals, put together and issued during the presidential nomination process and subject to approval affirmed during the party’s national political convention. |
| Plurality | A plurality is one method of identifying the winning candidate in an election. A plurality occurs when the votes received by a candidate are greater than those received by any opponent but can be less than a majority of the total vote. For example, if one candidate receives 30 percent of the votes, a second candidate also receives 30 percent and a third receives 40 percent, the third candidate could win the election by a plurality of the votes. |
| Political Action Committee (PAC) | PACs are political committees not related directly to a political party, but rather affiliated with corporations, labor unions or other organizations. The committees contribute money to candidates and engage in other election-related activities so as to promote specific legislative agendas. Funds are gathered by voluntary contributions from members, employees or shareholders. PACs have increased significantly in influence and number in recent years: in 1976, there were 608 PACs, and in 2006, there are about 4,600. |
| Political Gridlock | In politics, when one side (or, in some cases, more than one side) in a political matter manages to stall things so there is no room for maneuver or compromise and nothing can be accomplished, the situation is described as gridlock. |
| Political Party | an organized group of people with common values and goals, who try to get their candidates elected to office. The Democrats and the Republicans are the two major political parties in the USA today. |
| Politician | a person who is running for office or has won an election and is already in office. |
| Poll/Polling | A public opinion poll is created when a polling firm contacts a sample group of randomly selected citizens and asks a series of standard questions. If executed properly, the poll’s data reflect the range of opinions and the portion of the population that holds them in a manner representative of the full population. Public opinion polls provide an idea of what many Americans think about various candidates and issues. |
| Poll Tax | money that must be paid in order to vote. There used to be poll taxes in some places in the USA; this tax kept many poor people from voting since they could not afford to pay the tax. The 24th Amendment to the Constitution (ratified in 1964) made poll taxes illegal. |
| Popular Vote | the result of the votes of the eligible voters. The winner of the popular vote usually wins the election (but not always – sometimes the outcome of the vote of the Electoral College is different). |
| Precinct | the smallest geographic area in US voting subdivisions, in which local party officials are elected. A precinct usually has from 200 to 1,000 voters in it. Each precinct has an elected precinct captain (the neighborhood party leader). The purpose of a precinct is vote for a candidate and to elect delegates who will go to the city or county convention, and relay the precinct’s vote for that candidate. |
| Primary Election | A state-level election in which voters choose a candidate affiliated with a political party to run against a candidate who is affiliated with another political party in a later, general election. A primary may be either “open” — allowing any registered voter in a state to vote for a candidate to represent a political party, or “closed” — allowing only registered voters who belong to a particular political party to vote for a candidate from that party. |
| Protest Vote | A vote for a third-party candidate made, not to elect that candidate, but to indicate displeasure with the candidates of the two major political parties. |
| Push Polling | A public-opinion polling technique that is used to test possible campaign themes by asking very specific questions about an issue or a candidate is call push polling. |
| Redistricting | The process of redrawing the geographic boundaries of congressional districts, the electoral districts within states from which members of the House of Representatives are elected, is called redistricting. Both Democrats and Republicans at the state level compete to get hold of the legal and political mechanisms of redistricting — usually by controlling the state legislature. By doing so, they can redraw boundaries of congressional districts in ways that will lend an electoral advantage to their own party. |
| Red State | Red state refers to a U.S. state where the majority of voters support Republican candidates. |
| Referendum | A measure referred to voters by a state legislature proposing that specific legislation be approved or rejected is a referendum. The terms referendum, proposition and ballot initiative frequently are used interchangeably. |
| Representative Democracy | a government in which the adult citizens of the country vote to elect the country’s leaders. These elected leaders make the governmental decisions. |
| Republican | a person who belongs to the Republican political party. |
| Republican Party | a major US political party also known as the G.O.P. (standing for the Grand Old Party). The symbol of the Republican party is the elephant. The Republican party was founded as an anti-slavery party in the mid 1800s. The first Republican US President was Abraham Lincoln. |
| Senate | the Senate is part of Congress. Senators propose and vote on legislation (laws). There are 100 members of the Senate (two Senators for each state). Senators are elected to a term of 6 years. |
| Single-Member District | Single-member district describes the current arrangement for electing national and state legislators in the United States in which one candidate is elected in each legislative district; the winner is the candidate with the most votes. The “single-member” system allows only one party to win in any given district. Under the proportional system popular in Europe, much larger districts are used and several members are elected at one time, based on the proportion of votes their parties receive. |
| Soft Money | money that is given to a political party but is not given specifically to support a particular candidate. This money is supposed to be used for purposes such as voter registration drives, administrative costs and general political party expenses, but is often used by the parties to help particular candidates. |
| Sound Bite | A sound bite is a brief, very quotable remark by a candidate for office that is repeated on radio and television news programs. |
| Spin Doctor | A media adviser or political consultant employed by a campaign to ensure that a candidate receives the best possible publicity in any given situation is called a spin doctor. When these media advisers practice their craft, they are said to be “spinning” or putting “spin” on a situation or event to present it as favorably as possible to their side. |
| Straw Vote | An unofficial vote that is used either to predict the outcome of an official vote, or to measure the relative strength of candidates for office in a future election is called straw poll or straw vote. A good showing in a straw vote can give a candidate a boost, but does not necessarily predict later success. |
| Stump Speech | The “standard” speech of a candidate for office — the one he or she is most likely to use, perhaps with slight variations, on normal occasions. |
| Suffrage | the right or privilege of voting. |
| Suffragette | a person who campaigned for the right of women to vote. The 19th amendment (ratified in 1920) to the US Constitution gave women the right to vote. |
| Super Tuesday | Widespread use of the phrase “Super Tuesday” dates from 1988, when a group of Southern states banded together to hold the first large and effective regional group of primaries in order to boost the importance of Southern states in the presidential nomination process and lessen the impact of early votes in the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucus. Today, the meaning of the phrase is blurred, a reflection of the fact that during the presidential primary season there may be several groups of state primaries in various regions falling on one or more Tuesdays. These groupings are important because the weight of such a large, simultaneous vote tends to make or break would-be presidential nominees since so many convention delegates are selected at once. |
| Swing Voters | Voters not loyal to a particular political party sometimes can determine the outcome of an election by “swinging” one way or the other on an issue or candidate, often reversing their choices in a subsequent election. |
| Taxpayer Check-Off System | The taxpayer check-off system allows U.S. taxpayers to contribute $3 of their annual federal income tax payment to a public fund for financing presidential elections. To contribute, taxpayers simply check a box on their tax return that says that they want to participate in this system. Making the contribution does not raise or lower an individual’s taxes; it simply deposits $3 of the tax payment into the presidential election campaign fund. |
| Term Limits | Term limits involve restricting the number of years an officeholder or lawmaker may serve in a particular office. There is a term limit for the U.S. president, who may serve no more than two consecutive terms, or eight years total. There are no term limits for those who serve in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives. Some state and local offices also are subject to terms limits. |
| Third Party | Any political party that is not one of the two parties that dominated U.S. politics in the 20th century — the Republican Party and the Democratic Party — and that receives a base of support and plays a role in influencing the outcome of an election is referred to as a third party. |
| Ticket Splitting | Voting for candidates of different political parties in the same election, for instance, voting for a Democrat for president and a Republican for senator, is called splitting the ticket. Because these voters support candidates from more than one political party, they are said to “split” their votes. |
| Town Meeting | A town meeting is an informal gathering of an officeholder or candidate for office with a group of people, often local, in which the audience raises questions directly to the officeholder or candidate. |
| Tracking Survey | A type of public-opinion poll that allows candidates to follow, or “track” voters’ sentiments over the course of a campaign is called a tracking survey. For the initial survey, the pollster interviews the same number of voters on three consecutive nights — for example, 400 voters a night, for a total sample of 1,200 people. On the fourth night, the pollster interviews 400 more voters, adds their responses to the poll data, and drops the responses from the first night. Continuing in this way, the sample rolls along at a constant 1,200 responses drawn from the previous three nights. Over time, the campaign can analyze the data from the entire survey and observe the effect of certain events on voters’ attitudes. |
| US Constitution | the official document that is the basis of government and law in the United States. It was written in 1787, and ratified in 1789. Many amendments have been added since then. |
| Vote | a way to show your preference and choose elected leaders or decide on initiatives. People can vote by marking a piece of paper, raising their hand, or filling out a form on a computer. |
| Voting Booth | a small enclosure in which a person votes. |
| Voting Machine | a mechanical device used for |
Since the ancient Greeks and Romans first cast votes by dropping clay marbles into pots, new technologies aimed at improving the voting process have emerged. Voting in the United States has progressed from colored beans to all-electronic machines. As new technology solves old problems new questions and concerns inevitably occur.
| 1856 | The Australian state of Victoria becomes the first place to use uniform official ballots. This style of paper ballot, later called the Australian Secret Ballot, is printed at the government’s expense, lists the names of all candidates and issues in a fixed order, and is counted by hand. |
| 1888 | Massachusetts becomes the first state in the U.S. to adopt the Australian Secret Ballot system on a statewide basis. This voting system is still used in some areas of the country (approximately 1% of voters cast hand counted paper ballots in the 2004 U.S. Presidential election). |
| January 8 1889 | Herman Hollerith patents a method of using punched cards to compile data for the U.S. Census. Although this punch card system (U.S. Patent 395,782) was not used for voting, the technology laid the foundation for the punch card voting systems developed in the 1960’s. |
| November 19, 1889 | Jacob H. Myers of Rochester, New York patents the first mechanical lever voting machine (U.S. Patent 415,549). This technology, later called the Myers Automatic Booth, prevents over votes, speeds up the vote counting process, and significantly reduces the chance of dishonest vote counting because the votes are counted by machine. |
| 1892 | The Myers Automatic Booth lever voting machine was first used in 1892 in Lockport, New York… Lever machines were on the cutting edge of technology, with more moving parts than almost anything else being made. As such, they were as much of a high-tech solution to the problem of running an honest election as computer tabulated punched-cards in the 1960’s or direct-recording electronic voting machines in the 1990’s. |
| 1930 | By 1930, lever machines had been installed in virtually every major city in the United States. |
| 1962 | The first use of mark-sense [optical scan] ballots was in 1962, in Kern City, California, using a mark-sense system developed by the Norden Division of United Aircraft and the City of Los Angeles. Development of this 15,000 pound system began in 1958… and the system remained in use in Orange County for over a decade. The system also saw use in Oregon, Ohio, and North Carolina. |
| 1964 | Fulton and DeKalb Counties in Georgia were the first jurisdictions to use punch cards and computer tally machines when they adopted the system for the 1964 primary election. In the November 1964 Presidential election, these two jurisdictions were joined by Lane County, Oregon, and San Joaquin and Monterey Counties in California, who also adopted the punch card system. |
| August 17, 1965 | Joseph P. Harris, with the help of William Rouverol, patents the Votomatic punch card voting system (U.S. Patent 3,201,038). In this system a voter marks their choice by punching a hole in a prescored card marked with numbers which correspond to candidates and ballot issues listed in a separate booklet. The votes are then tabulated by a computerized counting machine. The Votomatic was an improvement upon the punch card system used the year before and eventually becomes the most commonly used type of punch card voting system. |
| Feb. 19, 1974 | Richard H. McKay, along with Paul Ziebold, James Kirby, Douglas Hetzel, and James Syndacker, patents a direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machine that becomes the first DRE to be used in a real election. This push-button machine, commercially named the Video Voter (U.S. Patent 3,793,505), uses projected light and phototransmitors but does not contain a computer. |
| 1975 | The Video Voter was first used in real elections in 1975, in Streamwood and Woodstock Illinois. Following these demonstrations, several Illinois counties purchased the system and used it between 1976 and 1980, approximately. |
| March 1975 | Roy Saltman prepares the first U.S. government report to evaluate computerized voting technology. “Effective Use of Computing Technology in Vote-Tallying” investigates voting system security, design, and functionality, as well as the ability to conduct audits of election processes and ballot recounts. This paper initiates the federal Voting Systems Standards program. |
| May 3, 1977 | James O. Narey, with the help of William Saylor, patents (U.S.Patent 4,021,780) the first model of the modern precinct-based optical scan systems in use today. |
| 1982 | In 1982, the AIS [American Information Systems] model 315 central-count ballot tabulator saw its first official use in several Nebraska counties. In 1997, AIS was reorganized as Election Systems and Software [ES&S] after a merger with Business Records Corporation. The AIS model 315 became the first optical scan system to be widely used throughout the United States. |
| February 3, 1987 | The R.F. Shoup Corporation and Chief Engineer Robert J. Boram patent the Shouptronic ELECTronic voting machine (U.S. Patent 4,641,240). This push-button machine was one of the first direct recording electronic voting machines to achieve significant commercial success. |
| 1988 | Roy Saltman states in his report “Accuracy, Integrity, and Security in Computerized Vote-Tallying” that “the use of pre-scored punch cards contributes to the inaccuracy and to the lack of confidence. It is generally not possible to exactly duplicate a count obtained on pre-scored punch cards, given the inherent physical characteristics of these ballots and variability in the ballot-punching performance of real voters. It is recommended that the use of pre-scored punch card ballots be ended.” Despite his warning, use of punch card voting systems continues until widespread problems in the 2000 U.S. Presidential election prompt these systems to be banned by the Help America Vote Act of 2002. |
| 1990 | The Federal Election Commission (FEC) releases the first set of standards for computer-based voting systems. The “Performance and Test Standards for Punch card, Marksense [optical scan], and Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems” are commonly referred to as the Voting Systems Standards (VSS). |
| 1996 | The first governmental election to be conducted over the Internet in the US was the 1996 Reform Party Presidential primary, in which Internet voting was offered, along with vote-by-mail and vote-by-phone, as an option to party members who did not attend the party convention. |
| November 7, 2000 | Problems with punch card voting systems, particularly in Florida, in the 2000 Presidential Election between George W. Bush and Al Gore put voting technology in the national spotlight. Inaccurate registration lists, unclear ballot designs, high numbers of spoiled ballots, and questions about voter intent on cards where the chad, the small piece of paper punched out of punch card ballots, was not fully punched out were among the problems. “Hanging chad,” “dimpled chad,” and “pregnant chad” are phrases that enter everyday conversation. |
| 2001 | Faculty from the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology create the Voting Technology Project in the wake of the 2000 election to provide strong academic guidance in this intersection of technology with democracy. They offer several recommendations to improve election administration for the future in their July, 2001 report Voting: What Is and What Could Be. |
| May 2002 | The FEC releases an updated version of the standards for electronic voting systems. The Voting Systems Standards expand on the first set of standards by focusing on the voting medium instead of specific kinds of voting systems and addressing accessibility, usability, telecommunications, and audit trails. |
| October 29, 2002 | President George W. Bush signs the first law to specifically address voting technology. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) is “an act to establish a program to provide funds to States to replace punch card voting systems, to establish the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of Federal elections and to otherwise provide assistance with the administration of certain Federal election laws and programs, to establish minimum election administration standards for States and units of local government with responsibility for the administration of Federal elections, and for other purposes.”The Help America Vote Act of 2002 is signed into law in an effort to improve voting systems across the country. The law mandates that all polling places have at least one handicap-accessible voting device, guarantees that any voter not appearing on a registration list has the right to cast a provisional vote, assures that all voters have the opportunity to review their selections before casting a ballot, establishes the Election Assistance Commission, and authorizes $3.9 billion in federal funds for replacing lever machines and punch card voting systems with either DREs or optical scan systems with accessible ballot marking devices. |
| 2002 | Following passage of HAVA, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is established. The EAC is tasked with providing support and technical guidance on the administration of federal elections, disbursing the funds allocated under HAVA, developing a new set of standards, implementing a new program for testing and certifying voting machines, and serving as a clearinghouse of election information. |
| 2002 | Georgia becomes the first state to implement the use of direct recording electronic voting machines on a statewide basis, deploying the DREs at the same time in every county and paying for the implementation with state funds instead of county funds. |
| July 23, 2003 | Computer security experts Avi Rubin and Dan Wallach, along with graduate students Tadayoshi Kohno and Adam Stubblefield, evaluate the security of a particular model of electronic voting machine based on source code they found on the Internet. Their analysis reveals several vulnerabilities that lead them to conclude these systems should not be used for federal elections. This critique is the first independent security analysis to raise concern about DREs and inspires many computer scientists to join the debate over the use of electronic voting machines. |
| December 9, 2003 | The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) today announced a group of leading election systems companies will align with ITAA to form the Election Technology Council (ETC). ETC members will work together to raise the profile of electronic voting, identify and address security concerns with electronic voting, develop a code of ethics for companies in the electronic voting sector, and make recommendations in the areas of election system standards and certification. |
| April 30, 2004 | Secretary of State Kevin Shelley decertifies all touch screen electronic voting machines in the state of California and bans their use in four counties that had been using them until significant improvements are made to the security of the systems. |
| May 5, 2004 | The U.S. Election Assistance Commission conducts their first public meeting, inviting testimony from a diversity of experts including election officials, computer scientists, disability advocates, and voting machine manufacturers. |
| July 16, 2004 | Nevada becomes the first state to mandate that all electronic voting machines used for federal elections be equipped with printers that produce a voter-verified paper audit trail. |
| November 2004 | During the November 2004 General Election in Carteret County, North Carolina electronic voting machines lost 4,438 votes. The manufacturer, Unilect, claimed the machines could store up to 10,500 votes but they actually only held 3,005 votes. Officials were unaware of the problem because the machines kept accepting votes after their memory was full, despite not being able to store them, and those votes were irretrievably lost. |
| September 2005 | The Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by President Jimmy Carter and former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, releases a report. Building Confidence in U.S. Elections makes several recommendations for improving confidence in elections and modernizing election administration, including a recommendation that all DREs include voter-verified paper audit trails. |
| December 2005 | Black Box Voting, Inc. sets up a demonstration in Leon County, Florida in which computer security experts Harri Hursti and Herbert Thompson are able to hack into the central vote tabulator of an electronic voting system and change the outcome of a mock election without leaving any trace of their actions. This exercise demonstrates that the software running electronic voting systems is vulnerable to tampering. |
| December 13, 2005 | The EAC unanimously adopts the 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. These new standards significantly increase security requirements for voting systems and expand accessibility for disabled individuals, including opportunities to vote privately and independently. The Guidelines will take effect in December 2007, at which time all previous standards will become obsolete. |
| January 1, 2006 | Beginning in 2006, HAVA requires that voting systems notify voters of over votes and permit them to review their ballots and correct errors before casting their votes…. Also beginning in 2006, [HAVA requires] that each polling place used in a federal election have at least one voting machine that is fully accessible for persons with disabilities. |
| May 11, 2006 | Black Box Voting, Inc. and computer security specialist Harri Hursti perform a security test on an electronic voting machine delivered to Emery County, Utah. Hursti shows that the machine contains backdoors that allow the software to be modified in several ways, including a type of attack in which the cheating software can be installed months or years before it is executed. |
| September 13, 2006 | Computer security expert Dr. Edward Felten, with the help of graduate students Ariel Feldman and J. Alex Halderman, demonstrates that with less than a minute of physical access to a Diebold electronic voting machine or its PCMCIA memory card, an attacker could install malware that could steal votes while modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates and could also introduce a voting machine virus that spreads from machine to machine. |
| September 21, 2006 | Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. (R) publicly urges voters to vote by absentee paper ballot instead of using the state’s electronic voting machines in the November 2006 General Election after problems with the machines emerged during Maryland’s primary. His announcement represents a complete change of opinion about DREs because Maryland had previously been one of the first states to implement electronic voting machines on a statewide basis while Ehrlich was governor in 2002. |
| November 7, 2006 | Because of funding made available and changes mandated by the Help America Vote Act, use of DREs in the General Election is the highest in U.S. history. According to Election Data Services, voting system changes this year were dominated by smaller jurisdictions, where resources to help the conversion are more limited… Thirty-six percent (36%) of the counties, with 38.4% of the registered voters, will be using direct recording electronic (DRE) equipment. |
| January 4 – 2007 | The New York Times reports that CIBER Inc., the nation’s largest tester of electronic voting machine software, was denied accreditation by the EAC in July 2006. Because CIBER had tested many of the electronic voting systems used in the November 2006 election and its failure to receive accreditation was not disclosed until January 2007, many election officials unknowingly employed DREs that had not been tested by an accredited lab. |
| Dec. 14, 2007 | EVEREST Report Finds DREs Do Not Meet Computer Industry Security Standards The EVEREST Report of Findings commissioned by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer L. Brunner finds that all of “the computer-based voting systems in use in Ohio do not meet computer industry security standards and are susceptible to breaches of security that may jeopardize the integrity of the voting process.” |
| Jan. 2008 | Florida Fair Elections Center Reports over 100,000 Florida Votes Not Counted in Nov. 2006 The Florida Fair Elections Center report “Sarasota’s Vanished Votes: An Investigation into the Cause of Uncounted Votes in the 2006 Congressional District 13 Race in Sarasota County, Florida” states that “the iVotronic voting system failed to count over 100,000 votes in various races across the state of Florida in the November 2006 election.” |
| Nov. 4, 2008 | 2008 Presidential Election Runs Relatively Smoothly Despite widely-publicized concerns in the weeks leading up to the 2008 presidential election, election day went rather smoothly. There were reports of glitches with electronic voting machines in Florida, Ohio and Virginia. The lack of a close outcome in the presidential race limited the impact of the minor problems that arose. |
| June 5, 2009 | Sequoia Voting Systems Allows Access to Technical Information about DREs In response to the controversial Washington, D.C. September primaries where Sequoia machines counted more ballots than there were votes, Sequoia Voting Systems agrees to turn over access to technical information on how the voting machines work and tabulate results. This agreement then allows the D.C. Council to turn over documents such as blueprints of the machines and the source code to computer and legal experts for examination. |
| Sep. 3, 2009 | Diebold, Inc. Sells Election-Systems Business to Election Systems & Software, Inc. for $5 Million Diebold Inc. sells its U.S. election-systems business to Election Systems & Software Inc. for $5 million, about one-fifth of what it paid 7 years earlier. Diebold, whose primary focus is making ATMs, entered the voting machine business in hopes of capitalizing on rising demand following the disputed 2000 presidential election. The sale drew the concern of lawmaker Charles Schumer (D-NY), Chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, who asked the Department of Justice to review the deal. When approved, Election Systems and Software Inc. controlled over three-quarters of the voting machine market. |
| Sep. 13, 2010 | Brennan Center Report Calls for Publicly Available National Database of Voting System Malfunctions Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law issues a report calling for a publicly available national database containing information on voting system failures and vulnerabilities. The report finds that the same malfunctions occur frequently with the same machines in different jurisdictions. Election officials are often not aware of vulnerabilities because vendors are under no legal obligation to notify election officials of past system problems. |
| 2011 | Security Experts Hack Voting Machines by Remote Control “Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education, according to computer science and security experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the manipulation behind… The team’s video demonstrates how inserting the inexpensive electronic device into the voting machine can offer a ‘bad guy’ virtually complete control over the machine. A cheap remote control unit can enable access to the voting machine from up to half a mile away.” |
| Nov. 6, 2012 | Long Lines Due to Voting Machine Malfunctions in 2012 Presidential Election The elections were rife with long lines and some glitches with voting machines. A YouTube video showing a Pennsylvania voting e-voting touch screen machine “flipping” a vote from Obama to Romney went viral. Machine breakdowns in Virginia caused three to five hour long lines that prompted some polling places to remain open late. South Carolina reported too few machines as well as broken machines. Malfunctioning machines were reported in Georgia, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Colorado. |
| 2013 | New York City Returns to Lever Machines for Primary Election and Runoffs Approximately 5,100 lever voting machines that weigh over 800 pounds and have more than 20,000 parts each, have been brought out of storage for the New York City primary election and runoffs and made ready for the general election in November. The lever machines are being used because the $95 million electronic system caused chaos in the 2012 election including a 72 day long recount involving litigation for the special election for State Senate in Brooklyn. |
| July 29, 2017 | First-Ever Voting Machine “Hackathon” Reveals Many Vulnerabilities in Electronic Voting Machines and Poll Systems “E-voting machines and voter registration systems used widely in the United States and other countries’ elections can readily be hacked—in some cases with less than two hours’ work. This conclusion emerged from a three-day-long hackathon at the Def Con security conference in Las Vegas… Def Con, an annual computer hacking conference celebrating its 25th year, hosted its first Voting Machine Hacking Village this year. In it, conference attendees were given access to many of the most popular voting machines and voter registration tracking systems in use around the world today. And before the Hacking Village organizers were even finished with their opening morning introductory remarks, a Danish hacker in the audience had already broken into one of the target machines wirelessly. Soon after on the same morning, a second group in the room wirelessly hacked into a popular electronic poll book system, responsible for storing and maintaining voter registration information. In total, the inaugural e-voting hackathon turned up at least 18 new vulnerabilities to e-voting and e-poll book systems.” |
| August 13, 2020 | The United States Postal Service (USPS) filed a patent application called “Secure Voting System” to use blockchain technology to streamline and secure mail-in voting. The ‘Secure Voting System’ patent application, published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, describes how the same technology that supports bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could be used to “track and secure the vote by mail system”.It describes using blockchain technology to secure mail-in voting: A registered voter receives a computer-readable code in the mail and confirms identity and confirms correct ballot information in an election. The system separates voter identification and votes to ensure vote anonymity, and stores votes on a distributed ledger in a blockchain. |