Eight vendors were present, displaying 13 voting systems. The systems on display included voting kiosks, an Internet system, several touch-screens, optical scan and a precinct tabulator for punch cards. With one system, the way we vote, design ballots, count votes, train election workers and educate voters is the same for every precinct and every election. One of the challenges election officials face in choosing a uniform voting system is Michigan s highly decentralized election system. The state has 5,376 precincts, and its local election officials comprise 25 percent of all local election officials in the nation.
Optical scan requires voters to color in an oval or arrow next to a candidate s name.
A scanner reads the marks and tabulates votes. 1,443 precincts use a punch card system. With punch cards, voters use a stylus to punch a hole in the ballot corresponding to the candidate s name. A card reader reads and tabulates votes. 693 precincts use lever-style voting machines.