The machinery of American democracy has changed dramatically, but every new device has brought its own vulnerabilities and controversies.
Machines Replace Hand Counting
Early voters wrote names or identifiers on paper ballots, which were counted by hand. By the late nineteenth century, official printed ballots were nearly universal. Mechanical lever machines first appeared in 1892 and became widespread; about two-thirds of presidential votes were cast using them in 1964.
Punch-card systems emerged in the 1960s and accounted for about one-third of votes by 1980. Optical scanning also developed in the 1960s, allowing ballots marked with pencil or ink to be read electronically rather than counted manually.
The Digital Turn
Direct-recording electronic machines, or DREs, record votes digitally. Their use grew from less than 1 percent of ballots in 1980 to a peak of 38 percent in 2006. Concern about the absence of a paper trail later contributed to a decline.
The 2000 election’s “hanging chad” scandal helped drive replacement of punch cards through the Help America Vote Act. New York, the last state to abandon lever machines, replaced them with optical scanning in 2010.
Even technology reflects economic history. Counties that were wealthy when punch cards peaked were more likely to use them in 2000, while counties that retained their wealth could more readily afford replacement.
Voting equipment is never just hardware. It is a record of past choices, local budgets, and the public’s changing definition of a trustworthy vote.
