Some local officials are concerned that even though they are happy with their current machines, they would be forced to change to the touch-screen models. These machines incorporate a form of voting similar to filling out a lotto form, SAT or fourth-grade mastery test. The completed form is then fed thru a computerized counting machine. These machines alert the voter if they have accidentally selected multiple candidates for the same office and in theory, gives them the chance to correct the mistake before leaving their polling place. Some areas of the country, such as the many counties in Florida, use a punch card system.
Voters punch holes in the cards with a supplied punch device.
After voting, the voter may place their ballot in a ballot box or the ballot may be fed into a computer vote-tabulating device. Understandably, after the problems that happened last November, many of the precincts using this method are considering switching to more modern systems. Despite the advances in modern voting technology, there is strong support to keep the old-fashioned lever units, which were first officially used in the United States in 1892. By 1930, lever machines had been installed in almost every major city in the country and by the 1960s, they were responsible for tabulating ballots in more than half the country s voting precincts. They are still used in about 20 percent of the precincts nationwide.