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HANGING CHADS
Are Long Gone, Hello Scantron™
By Kathy Maynard
Staff Writer Connected Now, Inc.
If you asked for the definition of “chad” four years ago, most people would probably have guessed either a boy’s name or a country somewhere in Africa. Following the 2000 presidential election, however, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who didn’t know that chad referred to the bits of paper that should be removed when a hole is made in a computerized punched card ballot. When the American public learned that “hanging,” “pregnant” and “dimpled” chads left on improperly punched ballots kept thousands of votes from being counted in the election, chad joined the growing number of computer terms to enter our everyday vocabulary.
Save a tree, data on a disk
Punched cards had already become synonymous with computerization decades earlier when they were the primary way to enter data into commercial mainframe computers. Everything from monthly telephone bills to college registration forms were printed on the familiar cards along with the warning: “Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate.” By the mid 1990’s, however, computer technology had advanced to the point where virtually all large scale data processing operations and other businesses were storing their data on disk or magnetic tape.
The problems associated with collecting and counting votes in Florida’s extremely close and competitive presidential race occurred because of a unique set of circumstances, including a confusing butterfly ballot, high voter turnout and vague procedures for the handling of overseas and military ballots as well as the exceptionally high number of improperly punched cards. Many Americans were shocked to learn that we were leaving something as important as electing our leaders to what many experts claimed was imperfect, nearly obsolete technology. Others maintained that human error, such as poor planning and failure to properly maintain the voting machines, was equally to blame.
Ultimately, the uncertainty of those election results has had many repercussions: 42 states have acquired new electronic voting systems in time for the 2004 presidential election, law suits have been filed over the constitutionality of punch card voting systems and the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project (www.vote.caltech.edu) was formed to study the problems and make recommendations for immediate steps to avoid lost votes in the 2004 presidential election.
Are You One of the 19%?
It is estimated that about 29 percent of all registered voters will use electronic voting machines, about 32 percent of all registered voters will use optical scanning voting systems and 19 percent will use punch card ballots.
Punched cards, made of thin cardboard to hold data as patterns of punched holes, were originally developed in the eighteenth century to control looms to weave intricate patterns. Herman Hollerity used punched card technology to store and analyze data for the 1890 U.S. Census. At first, cards were punched by hand, but in 1901 Hollerity patented a key punch machine that operated with keys like a typewriter to punch cards mechanically for far more accuracy. Eventually the company he formed to market his invention became part of IBM.
Always a problem with Chad
Chad has always been a nuisance. The classic IBM punched card readers of the first half of the 20th century were prone to jamming a hanging chad usually guaranteed a jam. Keypunch machines, which punched cards mechanically, helped eliminate many errors. It wasn’t until the addition of vacuum pick to the documentation card readers in the early 1970s that finally enabled hanging chads to go through the machine without jamming. However, voters punch cards manually, thereby increasing the errors.
Punched card ballots were introduced in 1964 and quickly grew to become the most widely used computer-based election technology. Problems with punched card voting systems led the state of Iowa to effectively ban use of punched card ballots in 1984 and the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility published a call for a general ban on the use of pre-scored punched card ballots in 1988. Though viable electronic replacements for punched card ballots were developed in the early 1990s, about one-third of the polling places in the United States still used punched card ballots in the 2000 presidential election.
Americans Shocked
As many Americans were alarmed to learn of the problem, it was hardly a new issue. Historically, several other close elections have been manually recounted, usually counting the hanging and dimpled chads the machines missed because the voter’s intent could be determined. It was the unique set of circumstances including vague procedures for the handling of overseas and military ballots, high voter turnout, the confusing butterfly ballot and an exceptionally high number of improperly punched cards, that combined in an extremely close and competitive race that led to uncertainty of results in the 2000 election.
The punch-card system has voters punch holes in pre-scored cards opposite their choice with a supplied punch device. The ballot may be fed directly into a vote tabulating device at the location, or the votes may be collected in a ballot box, collected and tabulated at another location. For starters, 42 states will be using new voting machines in the 2004 election.
For more links to voter registration and other chad links, visist here.
Kathy Maynard can be reached at
KMaynard@ConnectedNow.com.
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