New punch card systems use equipment that, like a precinct scanner, secures ballot in a box after voters casts them. Punch cards can be used with absentee and mail ballots. Mail Balloting With mail balloting, voters receive ballots in the mail, indicate their votes on the ballots, and mail them back to the election office. Election administrators count the ballots in a centralized location. Optical scanners or punch card readers can count the ballots, or election workers can manually enter the ballots into a DRE such as a touch screen or push-button machine.
Jurisdictions can also count mail ballots by hand.
Oregon conducts all statewide and legislative elections by mail, as do other jurisdictions throughout the United States. Some jurisdictions count ballots by hand. Internet Legislation to explore the use of Internet voting has been introduced in Minnesota and the state of Washington, and the Secretary of State of California convened a task force which made recommendations to the legislature on Internet voting. The Department of Defense has conducting a pilot project to allow overseas residents, both military and civilian, of Florida, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas and Utah to vote by the Internet. Consideration of Internet voting has raised concerns about security, fraud and voter coercion.