In Washington, Sens. Much of the focus on reform, experts say, will be on antiquated and varying vote-counting machines in municipalities across the nation. In 1990, the federal government did create standards for voting equipment, but they are not mandatory. Many states have written some standards into their election laws. But older voting equipment is usually exempt.
Voting systems vary radically from state to state.
Those machines caused havoc in Florida when the chad stayed partially attached, producing ballots with the so-called pregnant or dimpled chad. With Chad Chad became a household word during the Florida election dispute. Saltman, now a retired computer scientist who has consulted on election equipment in Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, said he was using the word nearly three decades ago when he drafted an earlier report on reforming voting equipment. In his 1988 report, he called for eliminating the punch-card systems. Saltman, who is passionate about the subject, laments that the idea of reform did not catch on years ago.