Chad In U.S. elections, voters use pins to mark the punchcards by hand. The resulting leftover piece of paper is referred to as a piece of chad, a term originating from 1947 of unknown origin. Machines can punch chad out cleanly, but people cannot always do so, resulting in confusing to interpret ballots. New election terms have been used to describe disturbing ballot chad. Hanging chad means one corner of the chad is hanging onto the punchcard.
Swinging chad means two corners are attached to the ballot card.
Tri chad means three corners are hanging but the hole has been punched. Pregnant chad means a hole is punched through the chad but it still hangs on all four sides. Dimpled chad means there is an indent in the chad but no clean hole has been punched. Related Information Herman Hollerith Herman Hollerith invented a punchcard tabulation machine system for statistical computation. Herman Hollerith used a punched card device to help analyze the US census data of 1880.