How Does a Voting Machine Work?
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Mechanical Voting Machines
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Mechanical lever machines are the oldest kind of automatic voting. Each machine has a set of levers, and each lever corresponds to a particular candidate or a vote on a particular proposal. The voter starts the machine by pulling a lever that closes the curtain. He then pulls the levers for the proposals and candidates he supports. When he pulls the master lever again, the curtain opens and the levers he has pushed spring up. As each lever rises, it turns a gear which drives a mechanical counter. Each lever pull increments the counter by one. When 10 votes are counted, it moves a second counter wheel, and so on for 100 votes.
Optical Voting
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Optical voting systems work just like a standardized test. A voter marks an oval, circle or square that corresponds to the candidate she wants to vote for. Some systems have the ballot directly written next to the markings. Others have a separate ballot and voting page. When the ballot is fed into the tabulator, the machine scans line by line. On every line, it looks for the darkest mark and records that as the vote. Optical voting machines use an electronic disc or hard drive to add the votes.
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Direct Recording Electronic
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Direct recording electronic voting machines have a similar layout to a mechanical voting machines. The ballot is displayed up on the screen next to choices. Some direct recording electronic machines use touch screens which the voters press to register a vote. Others use buttons, or even levers. There is also a keyboard for write-ins. Votes are usually stored on a data disk or card of some sort.
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