Editing Voting machine

{{Short description|Machine used to vote in elections}}
{{Distinguish|Political machine}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Use American English|date = March 2019}}
{{Electiontech}}

A '''voting machine''' is a machine used to record votes in an election without paper. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use ''[[electronic voting machine]]s''.  Traditionally, a voting machine has been defined by its mechanism, and whether the system tallies votes at each voting location, or centrally. Voting machines should not be confused with [[tabulating machine]]s, which count votes done by paper [[ballot]].

Voting machines differ in usability, security, cost, speed, accuracy, and ability of the public to oversee elections. Machines may be more or less accessible to voters with different disabilities.

Tallies are simplest in [[parliamentary system]]s where just one choice is on the ballot, and these are often tallied manually. In other political systems where many choices are on the same ballot, tallies are often done by machines to give faster results.

==Historical machines==
In [[ancient Athens]] (5th and 4th centuries BCE) voting was done by different colored pebbles deposited in urns, and later by bronze markers created by the state and officially stamped. This procedure served for elected positions, jury procedures, and ostracisms.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/uploads/media/hesperia/147360.pdf|title=Toward a Study of Athenian Voting Procedure|first1=Alan L.|last1=Boegehold|journal=[[Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens]]|year=1963|volume=32|number=4|pages=366–374|jstor=147360|access-date=August 14, 2020|archive-date=March 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309190518/https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/uploads/media/hesperia/147360.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The first use of paper ballots was in Rome in 139 BCE, and their first use in the United States was in 1629 to select a pastor for the Salem Church.<ref>[http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/ Jones, Douglas W.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921144453/http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/ |date=September 21, 2011 }}. [http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/pictures/ A Brief Illustrated History of Voting] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921144601/http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/pictures/ |date=September 21, 2011 }}. ''[http://www.uiowa.edu/ The University of Iowa] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111029090249/http://www.uiowa.edu/ |date=October 29, 2011 }} [http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/ Department of Computer Science] ''.</ref>

===Mechanical voting===
====Balls====
The first major proposal for the use of voting machines came from the [[Chartists]] in the United Kingdom in 1838.<ref>Douglas W. Jones, Early Requirements for Mechanical Voting Systems, [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5460390 First International Workshop on Requirements Engineering for E-voting Systems], August 31, 2009, Atlanta. ([http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/ReVote09history.pdf author's copy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805163717/http://homepage.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting/ReVote09history.pdf |date=August 5, 2012 }}).</ref>  Among the radical reforms called for in ''The People's Charter'' were [[universal suffrage]] and voting by [[secret ballot]].  This required major changes in the conduct of elections, and as responsible reformers, the Chartists not only demanded reforms but described how to accomplish them, publishing ''Schedule A'', a description of how to run a polling place, and ''Schedule B'', a description of a voting machine to be used in such a polling place.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/peoplescharterwi00workrich The People's Charter with the Address to the Radical Reformers of Great Britain and Ireland and a Brief Sketch of its Origin] Elt and Fox, London, 1848; obverse of title page.</ref><ref>[http://www.abdn.ac.uk/radicalism/display.php?id=RAD144 The People's Charter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118193215/https://www.abdn.ac.uk/radicalism/display.php?id=RAD144 |date=November 18, 2018 }} 1839 Edition, in the [http://www.abdn.ac.uk/radicalism/ radicalism collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118194042/https://www.abdn.ac.uk/radicalism/ |date=November 18, 2018 }} of the [[University of Aberdeen]].</ref>

The Chartist voting machine, attributed to Benjamin Jolly of 19 York Street in [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], allowed each voter to cast one vote in a single race.  This matched the requirements of a British parliamentary election.  Each voter was to cast his vote by dropping a brass ball into the appropriate hole in the top of the machine by the candidate's name.  Each voter could only vote once because each voter was given just one brass ball.  The ball advanced a clockwork counter for the corresponding candidate as it passed through the machine, and then fell out the front where it could be given to the next voter.

====Buttons====
In 1875, Henry Spratt of [[Kent]] received a U.S. patent for a voting machine that presented the ballot as an array of push buttons, one per candidate.<ref>H. W. Spratt, ''Improvement in Voting Apparatus,'' {{US patent|158652|U.S. Patent 158,652}}, Jan 12. 1875.</ref>  Spratt's machine was designed for a typical British election with a single [[Plurality voting system|plurality]] race on the ballot.

In 1881, Anthony Beranek of Chicago patented the first voting machine appropriate for use in a general election in the United States.<ref>A. C. Beranek, ''Voting Apparatus'', {{US patent|248130|U.S. Patent 248,130}}g, October 11, 1881.</ref>  Beranek's machine presented an array of push buttons to the voter, with one row per office on the ballot, and one column per party.  Interlocks behind each row prevented voting for more than one candidate per race, and an interlock with the door of the voting booth reset the machine for the next voter as each voter left the booth.

====Tokens====
The psephograph was patented by Italian inventor Eugenio Boggiano in 1907.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/graphicillustrat1907unse|title=The Graphic : an illustrated weekly newspaper|date=1869|publisher=London : Graphic|others=University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign}}</ref> It worked by dropping a metal token into one of several labeled slots. The psephograph would automatically tally the total tokens deposited in each slot. The psephograph was first used in a theatre in Rome, where it was used to gauge audience reception to a play: "good", "bad", or "indifferent".<ref>{{cite magazine| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bNlwYIji9YAC&q=boggiano| magazine=Harper's Weekly| year=1909| volume=53| title=Mechanical Criticism}}</ref>

====Analog computers====
Lenna Winslow's 1910 voting machine was designed to offer all the questions on the ballot to men and only some to women because women often had [[partial suffrage]], e.g. being allowed to vote on issues but not candidates. The machine had two doors, one marked "Gents" and the other marked "Ladies". The door used to enter the voting booth would activate a series of levers and switches to display the full ballot for men and the partial ballot for women.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Voting Machine That Displayed Different Ballots Based on Your Sex|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/voting-machine-displayed-different-ballots-based-sex-180972434/|last=Kindy|first=David|date=June 26, 2019|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en|access-date=May 26, 2020|archive-date=November 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101141144/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/voting-machine-displayed-different-ballots-based-sex-180972434/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Lenna Winslow, {{US patent|963105|U.S. patent 963,105}}, which drew from her earlier voting machine designs.<!-- with thanks to a slide in the Smithsonian's https://museum.archives.gov/rightfully-hers exhibit which I can't link directly to--></ref>

====Dials====
By July 1936, [[IBM]] had mechanized voting and ballot tabulation for [[single transferable vote]] elections. Using a series of dials, the voter could record up to twenty ranked preferences to a [[punched card]], one preference at a time. Write-in votes were permitted. The machine prevented a voter from [[Spoilt vote|spoiling]] their ballot by skipping rankings and by giving the same ranking to more than one candidate. A standard punched-card counting machine would tabulate ballots at a rate of 400 per minute.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hallett|first=George H.|date=July 1936|title=Proportional representation|journal=National Municipal Review|language=en|volume=25|issue=7|pages=432–434|doi=10.1002/ncr.4110250711|issn=0190-3799}}</ref>

[[File:voting machine.png|thumb|Demo version of lever style voting machine on display at the [[National Museum of American History]]]]

====Levers====
Lever machines were commonly used in the United States until the 1990s.  In 1889, [[Jacob H. Myers]] of [[Rochester, New York]], received a patent for a voting machine that was based on Beranek's 1881 push button machine.<ref>Jacob H. Myers, ''Voting Machine'', {{US patent|415549|U.S. Patent 415,549}}, November 19, 1889.</ref>  This machine saw its first use in [[Lockport (city), New York|Lockport, New York]], in 1892.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B04E0DB1F39E233A25750C1A9629C94639ED7CF Republicans Carry Lockport; The New Voting Machine Submitted to a Practical Test] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819212034/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B04E0DB1F39E233A25750C1A9629C94639ED7CF |date=August 19, 2016 }}, in the [https://www.nytimes.com New York Times] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200312005902/https://www.nytimes.com/ |date=March 12, 2020 }}, Wed. April 13, 1892; page 1.</ref>  In 1894, Sylvanus Davis added a straight-party lever and significantly simplified the interlocking mechanism used to enforce the vote-for-one rule in each race.<ref>S. E. Davis, ''Voting Machine,'' {{US patent|src=uspto|526668|U.S. Patent 526,668}}, September 25, 1894.</ref>  By 1899, Alfred Gillespie introduced several refinements.  It was Gillespie who replaced the heavy metal voting booth with a curtain that was linked to the cast-vote lever, and Gillespie introduced the lever by each candidate name that was turned to point to that name in order to cast a vote for that candidate.  Inside the machine, Gillespie worked out how to make the machine programmable so that it could support races in which voters were allowed to vote for, for example, 3 out of 5 candidates.<ref>A. J. Gillespie, ''Voting-Machine'', {{US patent|628905|U.S. Patent 628,905}}, July 11, 1899.</ref>

On December 14, 1900, the U.S. Standard Voting Machine Company was formed, with Alfred Gillespie as one of its directors, to combine the companies that held the Myers, Davis, and Gillespie patents.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=kCE7AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA773 The Manual of Statistics:  Stock Exchange Hand-book, 1903], The Manual of Statistics Company, New York, 1903; page 773.</ref>  By the 1920s, this company (under various names) had a monopoly on voting machines, until, in 1936, [[Shoup Voting Machine Corporation|Samuel and Ransom Shoup]] obtained a patent for a competing voting machine.<ref>Samuel R. Shoup and Ransom F. Shoup, ''Voting Machine'', {{US patent|2054102|U.S. Patent 2,054,102}}, September 15, 1936.</ref>  By 1934, about a sixth of all presidential ballots were being cast on mechanical voting machines, essentially all made by the same manufacturer.<ref>Joseph Harris, Voting Machines, Chapter VII of [http://www.vote.nist.gov/election_admin.htm Election Administration in the United States] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090831084621/http://vote.nist.gov/election_admin.htm |date=August 31, 2009 }}, Brookings, 1934; pages 249 and 279–280.</ref>

Commonly, a voter enters the machine and pulls a lever to close the curtain, thus unlocking the voting levers. The voter then makes his or her selection from an array of small voting levers denoting the appropriate candidates or measures. The machine is configured to prevent overvotes by locking out other candidates when one candidate's lever is turned down. When the voter is finished, a lever is pulled which opens the curtain and increments the appropriate counters for each candidate and measure. At the close of the election, the results are hand copied by the precinct officer, although some machines could automatically print the totals. New York was the last state to stop using these machines, under court order, by the fall of 2009.<ref>[http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070810/NEWS01/708100363 "Lever voting machines get a reprieve in NY"], ''[[Press & Sun-Bulletin]]'' ([[Binghamton, New York]]), August 10, 2007{{dead link|date=March 2021}}</ref><ref>Ian Urbina. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/us/politics/05voting.html States Prepare for Tests of Changes to Voting System] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125122457/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/us/politics/05voting.html |date=January 25, 2021 }}, ''[[New York Times]]'', February 5, 2008</ref>

===Punched card voting===
[[Image:Votomatic.jpg|thumb|right|The Votomatic vote recorder, a punched card voting machine originally developed in the mid-1960s.]]
[[Punched card]] systems employ a card (or cards) and a small clipboard-sized device for recording votes. Voters punch holes in the cards with a [[ballot marking device]].  Typical ballot marking devices carry a ballot label that identifies the candidates or issues associated with each punching position on the card, although in some cases, the names and issues are printed directly on the card. After voting, the voter may place the ballot in a ballot box, or the ballot may be fed into a computer vote tabulating device at the precinct.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

The idea of voting by punching holes on paper or cards originated in the 1890s<ref>Kennedy Dougan, ''Ballot-Holder'', {{US patent|440545|U.S. Patent 440,545}}, November 11, 1890.</ref> and inventors continued to explore this in the years that followed.
By the late 1890s [[John McTammany|John McTammany's]] voting machine was used widely in several states.  In this machine, votes were recorded by punching holes in a roll of paper comparable to those used in [[player piano]]s, and then tabulated after the polls closed using a [[pneumatic]] mechanism.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

Punched-card voting was proposed occasionally in the mid-20th century,<ref>Fred M. Carroll (IBM), ''Voting Machine'', {{US patent|2195848|U.S. Patent 2,195,848}}, April 2, 1940.</ref>  but the first major success for punched-card voting came in 1965, with Joseph P. Harris' development of the Votomatic punched-card system.<ref>Joseph P. Harris, ''Data Registering Device'', {{US patent|3201038|U.S. Patent 3,201,038}}, August 17, 1965.</ref><ref>Joseph P. Harris, ''Data Registering Device'', {{US patent|3240409|U.S. Patent 3,240,409}}, March 15, 1966.</ref><ref>Harris, Joseph P. (1980) [http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/Vote/ ''Professor and Practitioner: Government, Election Reform, and the Votomatic''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524191313/http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/Vote/ |date=May 24, 2013 }}, Bancroft Library</ref>  This was based on IBM's [[Punched card#IBM Port-A-Punch|Port-A-Punch]] technology.  Harris licensed the Votomatic to IBM.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/supplies/supplies_5404PH12.html |title=IBM Archive: Votomatic |access-date=May 18, 2009 |archive-date=July 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160720232456/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/supplies/supplies_5404PH12.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> William Rouverol built the prototype system.

The Votomatic system<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.verifiedvoting.org/resources/voting-equipment/ess/votamatic/|title=Votomatic|publisher=Verified Voting Foundation|access-date=May 30, 2015|archive-date=May 30, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150530094904/https://www.verifiedvoting.org/resources/voting-equipment/ess/votamatic/|url-status=dead}}</ref> was very successful and widely distributed. By the 1996 Presidential election, some variation of the punched card system was used by 37.3% of registered voters in the United States.<ref>"[http://www.fec.gov/pages/punchrd.htm Punchcards, a definition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927213200/http://www.fec.gov/pages/punchrd.htm |date=2006-09-27 }}". ''[[Federal Election Commission]]''</ref>

Votomatic style systems and punched cards received considerable notoriety in 2000 when their uneven use in Florida was alleged to have [[Electronic voting#Florida, punched cards, and the 2000 presidential election|affected the outcome of the U.S. presidential election]]. The [[Help America Vote Act]] of 2002 "effectively banned pre-scored punched card ballots."<ref name="Verified Voting">{{cite web |url=https://verifiedvoting.org/election-system/ess-votomatic/ |title=Election Systems & Software |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=<!--Not stated--> |website=Verified Voting |publisher=Verified Voting Foundation |access-date=January 30, 2022 |archive-date=January 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130063200/https://verifiedvoting.org/election-system/ess-votomatic/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Votomatics were "last used in 2 counties in Idaho in the [[2014 United States elections|2014 General Election]]".<ref name="Verified Voting" />

==Current voting machines==
An [[electronic voting machine]] is a voting machine based on [[electronics]].

Two main technologies exist: ''[[optical scan voting system|optical scanning]]'' and ''[[direct-recording electronic voting machine|direct recording]]'' (DRE).

===Optical scanning===
{{main|Optical scan voting system}}
{{further|Vote counting#Optical scan counting|Electronic voting#Paper-based electronic voting system|Electronic voting in the United States#Optical scan counting}}
[[File:2018 Ballots being counted in Santa Clara County.webm|thumb|Counting ballots by an optical scanner, San Jose, California, 2018]]

In an [[optical scan voting system]], or marksense, each voter's choices are marked on one or more pieces of paper, which then go through a scanner. The scanner creates an electronic image of each ballot, interprets it, creates a tally for each candidate, and usually stores the image for later review.

The voter may mark the paper directly, usually in a specific location for each candidate. Or the voter may select choices on an electronic screen, which then prints the chosen names, and a bar code or QR code summarizing all choices, on a sheet of paper to put in the scanner.<ref name="vv-bmd">{{Cite web |url=https://www.verifiedvoting.org/ballot-marking-devices/ |title=Ballot Marking Devices |website=Verified Voting |language=en-US |access-date=February 28, 2020 |archive-date=August 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805185249/https://www.verifiedvoting.org/ballot-marking-devices/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Hundreds of [[Electronic voting in the United States#Errors in optical scans|errors in optical scan systems]] have been found, from feeding ballots upside down, multiple ballots pulled through at once in central counts, paper jams, broken, blocked or overheated sensors which misinterpret some or many ballots, printing which does not align with the programming, programming errors, and loss of files.<ref name="bren10">{{Cite web |last=Norden |first=Lawrence |date=September 16, 2010 |title=Voting system failures: a database solution |url=https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2019-08/Report_Voting_Machine_Failures_Database-Solution.pdf |access-date=July 7, 2020 |website=Brennan Center, NYU |archive-date=November 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126221213/https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2019-08/Report_Voting_Machine_Failures_Database-Solution.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Direct-recording electronic (DRE)===
[[File:IVotronicVVPAT.jpg|thumb|DRE with paper for voter to verify (VVPAT)]]
{{main|DRE voting machine}}
{{further|Vote counting#Direct-recording electronic counting|Electronic voting#Direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting system|Electronic voting in the United States#Direct-recording electronic counting}}

In a [[DRE voting machine]] system, a touch screen displays choices to the voter, who selects choices, and can change their mind as often as needed, before casting the vote. Staff initialize each voter once on the machine, to avoid repeat voting. Voting data are recorded in memory components, and can be copied out at the end of the election.

Most of these machines also print names of chosen candidates on paper for the voter to verify, though some studies have indicated that fewer than 40% of voters do so.<ref name="bmd-cohn">{{Cite news |last=Cohn |first=Jennifer |url=https://medium.com/@jennycohn1/what-is-the-latest-threat-to-democracy-ballot-marking-devices-a-k-a-electronic-pencils-16bb44917edd |title=What is the latest threat to democracy? |date=May 5, 2018 |work=Medium |access-date=February 28, 2020 |language=en |archive-date=November 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201120233043/https://medium.com/@jennycohn1/what-is-the-latest-threat-to-democracy-ballot-marking-devices-a-k-a-electronic-pencils-16bb44917edd |url-status=dead }}</ref> The paper ballot, whether paper tape or separate ballot sheets, the paper ballot is securely stored, creating a [[voter-verified paper audit trail]] (VVPAT) that can be used for [[election audit]]s and [[recount]]s if needed.

For machines without VVPAT, there is no record of individual votes to check. For machines with VVPAT, checking is more expensive than with paper ballots, because on the flimsy thermal paper in a long continuous roll, staff often lose their place, and the printout has each change by each voter, not just their final decisions.<ref name="ga">{{Cite web |date=April 10, 2007 |title=VOTER VERIFIED PAPER AUDIT TRAIL Pilot Project Report |url=http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/VVPATreport.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081126235810/http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/VVPATreport.pdf |archive-date=November 26, 2008 |access-date=February 15, 2020 |website=Georgia Secretary of State}}</ref>

Problems have included public web access to the software, before it is loaded into machines for each election, and programming errors which increment different candidates than voters select.<ref name="bren10"/> The [[Federal Constitutional Court of Germany]] found that with existing machines could not be allowed because they could not be monitored by the public.<ref>[https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2009/bvg09-019.html German Federal Constitutional Court, Press release no. 19/2009 of 3 March 2009] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090404111620/http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/pressemitteilungen/bvg09-019en.html |date=April 4, 2009 }}</ref>

According to [[University of Iowa]] [[computer scientist]] [[Douglas W. Jones|Douglas Jones]], a specialist in the use of computers in elections, there has been no evidence of hackers accessing electronic voting machines in public use, though some hacks have been achieved in controlled laboratory settings.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-08-23 |title=Machine Politics: How America casts and counts its votes |url=https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-ELECTION/VOTING/mypmnewdlvr/ |access-date=2024-10-15 |work=Reuters |language=en}}</ref>

==Location of tallying==

Optical scans can be done either at the polling place or in another location. DRE machines always tally at the precinct.

==={{Anchor|Precinct count voting system}}Precinct-count voting system===
A precinct-count voting system is a voting system that tallies ballots at the polling place. Precinct-count machines typically analyze ballots as they are cast. This approach allows for voters to be notified of voting errors such as [[overvote]]s and can prevent [[spoilt vote]]s. After the voter has a chance to correct any errors, the precinct-count machine tallies that ballot. Vote totals are made public only after the close of polling. DREs and precinct scanners have electronic storage of the vote tallies and may transmit results to a central location over public telecommunication networks.

=== {{Anchor|Central count voting system}}Central-count voting system ===
[[File:ES&S DS 450.jpg|thumb|A medium-speed central-count [[Optical scan voting system|ballot scanner]], the DS450 made by [[Election Systems & Software]] can scan and sort about 4000 ballots per hour.]]
A central count voting system is a voting system that tallies ballots from multiple precincts at a central location.  Central count systems are also commonly used to process [[absentee ballot]]s.

Central counting can be done by hand, and in some jurisdictions, central counting is done using the same type of voting machine deployed at polling places, but since the introduction of the Votomatic punched-card voting system and the Norden Electronic Vote Tallying System in the 1960s, high speed ballot tabulators have been in widespread use, particularly in large metropolitan jurisdictions.  Today, commodity high-speed scanners sometimes serve this purpose, but special-purpose ballot scanners are also available that incorporate sorting mechanisms to separate tallied ballots from those requiring human interpretation.<ref>Douglas W. Jones and Barbara Simons, Broken Ballots, CSLI Publications, 2012; see Section 4.1 Central-Count Machines, pages 64-65, and Figure 21, page 73.</ref>

Voted ballots are typically placed into secure [[ballot box]]es at the polling place.  Stored ballots and/or Precinct Counts are transported or transmitted to a central counting location.  The system produces a printed report of the vote count, and may produce a report stored on electronic media suitable for broadcasting, or release on the Internet.

==Gallery==

<gallery perrow="9">
File:Winvote arlington.jpg|The Advanced Voting Solutions WINvote voting machine in [[Arlington County, Virginia]].
File:MDvotingmachine.jpg|A [[Diebold Election Systems|Diebold]] DRE voting machine used in [[Maryland]] 2004.
File:TallyVoting DRE.png|The TallyVoting Tally1 DRE in testing in Washington, DC.
File:IVotronic img 3452.jpg|[[ES&S]] iVotronic DRE Voting machine used in [[Issy-les-Moulineaux]] in [[France|2007 French presidential election]] in 2007.
File:Topvoter2.jpg|ISG TopVoter, a voting machine specifically designed for disabled voters.
File:Shouptronic.jpg|The Shouptronic 1242 DRE voting machine, later sold as the Danaher ElecTronic 1242.
File:Standardvotingmachine.jpg|A voting machine designed by Alfred J. Gillespie and marketed by the Standard Voting Machine Company of [[Rochester, New York]] from the late 1890s.
File:Voting machine lever.jpg|A mechanical lever voting machine still being used in 2008 in [[Kingston, New York]].
File:Voting machine Denver Colorado 1912.JPG|[[John McTammany|McTammany]] player-piano roll voting machine, 1912.
File:Urna eletrônica brasileira UE2020.jpg| [[Electronic voting in Brazil|Brazil's DRE voting machine]] with its terminal for poll assistance volunteers used in all elections since 2000.
File:EVM VVPAT.jpg| [[Electronic voting in India|India's DRE voting machine]] used in all major elections with its separate ballot unit and [[Voter-verified paper audit trail|VVPAT]] unit.
File:DefPuebloCABA - voto electronico (1).jpg| Argentina's voting machine with its [[:es:Sistema de Boleta Única Electrónica|distinct VVPAT ballot paper]] with [[RFID]] for two-factor authentication.
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[INEC card reader]]

{{colbegin}}
* [[ACCURATE]]
* [[Ballot]]
* [[Election ink]]
* [[Electronic voting in Brazil|Brazilian voting machine]]
* [[Electoral system]]
* [[Electronic voting]]
* [[Indian voting machines]]
* [[Open Voting Consortium]]
* [[Postal voting]]
* [[Safevote]]
* [[Security seal]]
* [[Vote counting system]]
* [[Voting system]]
{{colend}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Voting machines}}

===Election administration===
* [http://www.eac.gov Election Assistance Commission]
* [https://www.eac.gov/voting-equipment/voluntary-voting-system-guidelines US Voluntary Voting System Guidelines]
* [http://vote.nist.gov/ Vote.NIST.gov] – The [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]] [[Help America Vote Act]] page.

===Informational===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930000436/http://www.electiontechnology.com/research.php The Election Technology Library research list] – A comprehensive list of research relating to technology use in elections.
* [http://www.aceproject.org/ace-en/focus/e-voting/ E-Voting information] from [http://www.aceproject.org ACE Project]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090211235108/http://www.electionreformproject.org/ AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project]
* [[Ted Selker|Selker, Ted]] [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=00018DD5-73E7-1151-B57F83414B7F0000 Scientific American Magazine Fixing the Vote] October 2004
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071107152743/http://www.brennancenter.org/stack_detail.asp?key=97&subkey=38150&init_key=105 The Machinery of Democracy: Voting System Security, Accessibility, Usability, and Cost] from [http://www.brennancenter.org Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law]
* [http://www.electiontechnology.com/who.php Who's who in election technology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170501142904/http://www.electiontechnology.com/who.php |date=May 1, 2017 }}
* [http://www.vote.caltech.edu/ Caltech/ MIT Voting Technology Project]
* [http://blackboxvoting.org/black-box-voting-book/ Black Box Voting book]
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Voting Machines|volume=28|pages=217–218|first=Frank|last=Keiper}}

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[[Category:Election technology]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]

[[fr:Vote électronique]]