Voting machine
Voting machines differ in usability, security, cost, speed, accuracy, and ability of the public to oversee elections.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
[6] Spratt's machine was designed for a typical British election with a single 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.
[7] 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.
[14] 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.
[18] By 1934, about a sixth of all presidential ballots were being cast on mechanical voting machines, essentially all made by the same manufacturer.
The voter then makes his or her selection from an array of small voting levers denoting the appropriate candidates or measures.
At the close of the election, the results are hand copied by the precinct officer, although some machines could automatically print the totals.
[citation needed] The idea of voting by punching holes on paper or cards originated in the 1890s[22] and inventors continued to explore this in the years that followed.
In this machine, votes were recorded by punching holes in a roll of paper comparable to those used in player pianos, and then tabulated after the polls closed using a pneumatic mechanism.
[29] Votomatic style systems and punched cards received considerable notoriety in 2000 when their uneven use in Florida was alleged to have affected the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.
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.
[34] 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.
[32] The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany found that with existing machines could not be allowed because they could not be monitored by the public.
DREs and precinct scanners have electronic storage of the vote tallies and may transmit results to a central location over public telecommunication networks.
