There are more than 9,000 local election jurisdictions in the United States. (3) In most states, they arecounties or major cities, but in some New England and Upper Midwest states, they are smalltownships -- for example, more than 1,800 townships in Wisconsin. (4) Given that diversity and otherdifferences among states -- such as wealth, population, and the role of state election officials --responsibilities and characteristics of LEOs are likely to vary among the states. Nevertheless, somepatterns emerged from the survey. The demographic characteristics of LEOs are unusual for a groupof government officials. According to the survey results, the typical LEO is a whitewoman between 50 and 60 years old who is a high school graduate. She was elected to her currentoffice, works full-time in election administration, has been in the profession for about 10 years, andearns under $50,000 per year. She belongs to a state-level professional organization but not anational one, and she believes that her training as an election official has been good to excellent. As with any such description, the one above does not capture the diversity within thecommunity surveyed. About one-quarter of LEOs are men, about 5% belong to minority groups,40% are college graduates, and 8% have graduate degrees. They range from 24 to 89 years of age,and have served from 1 to 50 years. About one-third were appointed rather than elected to theirposts. Reported salaries range from under $10,000 to more than $120,000. About one-third belongto regional, national, or international professional organizations. The demographic profile of LEOs is unusual, especially for a professional group. While itis possible that some of the above results were statistical artifacts, it is likely that overall they reflectthe demographic characteristics of LEOs in general. If so, those characteristics appear to differ fromthose of other local government employees. For example, according to U.S. Census figures, whilewomen comprise a higher proportion of the local government workforce than men overall, (5) men comprise a higherproportion of local government general and administrative managers. (6) About 20% of those managersbelong to minorities. (7) The causes of those differences are not apparent. The patterns do not appear to be a result ofthe fact that most LEOs are elected, as the demographic characteristics of legislators appear to belargely similar to those for local government managers. (8) Potential policy implications of the demographic characteristicsof LEOs are discussed later in this report. The kinds of voting systems used in the United States have been changing over the past 20years. In particular, the computerization of voting has climbed dramatically during that period. Increasingly, jurisdictions have turned to computer-assisted voting systems -- especially optical scanand direct recording electronic (DRE) systems. In 1980, fewer than one-quarter of jurisdictions usedcomputer-assisted systems, with under 5% using optical scan and DRE systems. In contrast, morethan 75% used computer-assisted systems in 2004, with more than half of those using opticalscan. (9) Over that 20-yearspan, the most dramatic changes have been the seven-fold increase in the use of optical scan byjurisdictions, from about 7% in 1990 to more than 45% in 2004, and the doubling in DRE usebetween the 2000 and 2004 elections, from 10% to 20%. The number of jurisdictions usingpunchcards, lever machines, and hand-counted paper ballots was declining even before theenactment of HAVA. Use of these systems fell by more than half between 1990, when they wereused by more than 80% of jurisdictions, and 2004, with about 30% usage. The major alternativevoting systems in use at present are therefore optical scan and DRE. About half of jurisdictions with optical scan systems use precinctcount. In general, the survey results reflect the patterns found in other studies. (10) However, those studies,unlike the survey, did not distinguish between central-count and precinct-count systems. Thedistinction may be important from a policy perspective because for optical scan voting systems, onlythe precinct-count version provides for detection of improperly marked ballots by machine beforethe ballot is cast, allowing voters to correct mistakes such as overvotes (this is often called second-chance voting ). Central-count systems rely entirely on visual inspection by the voter todetect errors. About half (49.9%) of the jurisdictions surveyed use optical scan voting systems. Ofthose, 44.9% are central-count systems. (11) HAVA promotes but does not require the use of voting machinesthat detect errors. (12) LEOs are highly satisfied with whatever voting systems they areusing now. Most LEOs (more than 85% altogether) reported that they are highlysatisfied with their current voting systems and that the systems performed very well during theNovember 2004 election (more than 90%). There was little variation in the degree of satisfactionwith different kinds of voting systems, but the differences are illuminating: The most highly rated systems were precinct-count optical scan and DREs,which are the most compatible of current systems with the goals and requirements of HAVA. Ratings for these systems were not significantly different from each other. Both precinct-count optical scan and DRE systems were rated significantlyhigher than lever machines, hand-counted paper systems, and central-count optical scan with respectto overall satisfaction. There were no significant differences in the performance ratings of differentsystems for the November 2004 election, except between DREs, which were rated highest, andcentral-count optical scan, which was rated lowest. (13) While generally satisfied with their current systems, LEOs also indicated areas whereimprovements are needed. In rating a set of desired qualities of voting systems and the degree towhich their current voting system has those characteristics, the four features rated highest for boththe current and desired system were accuracy in counting, reliability, security, and ease of use by voters. Current systems were rated lowest in comparison to desired features for prevention of voter errors, ease of use by persons with disabilities, and machine error. Two features were rated higher as characteristics of the current voting system than they were indesirability: speed in vote counting, and cost of acquisition. The characteristics rated lowest for both current and desired systems were impact on different socioeconomic groups, and alternative-language capability. Not surprisingly, users of DREs and precinct-count optical scan systems rated them higherfor prevention of voter error than users of other systems rated theirs. DRE users also rated theirsystems higher than users of other systems did theirs for ease of use by disabled persons and formultiple-language use. Most jurisdictions acquiring new voting systems choose those thathelp voters avoid errors. The length of time that jurisdictions reported using theircurrent voting systems varied widely, from one year or less to more than 200 years. The average is12 years. (14) About onein six jurisdictions reported that they had acquired a new voting system since 2000, and half of thoseobtained DREs, which prevent overvotes and can help voters minimize unintentional undervoting. The remainder chose optical-scan systems, and more than three-quarters of those acquiredprecinct-count versions. About 40% of respondents indicated that they are likely to replace theircurrent voting system within the next five years, with similar proportions as above expecting tochoose DREs, precinct-count, and central-count optical scan systems. Overall, 85% of recentlyacquired or planned voting systems assist voters in preventing or detecting many ballot-markingerrors. LEOs tend to choose new voting systems with similarcharacteristics to what they use at present. LEOs might be expected to choose newvoting systems that behave in a similar manner to those they have been using. In particular,jurisdictions replacing punch-card and hand-counted paper systems might be more likely to chooseoptical scan, which is also paper-based. Those replacing lever machines might be expected tochoose DREs, since neither system uses paper ballots. The survey results support that hypothesis: Lever machine users are four times more likely to switch to DREs than to optical scan. Levermachine users who switch to optical scan systems are five times more likely to choose precinct-countthan central-count, which might be expected, as lever machines are also precinct-count systems. Users of punchcards are more likely to switch to optical scan systems than to DREs and are morelikely to choose precinct-count than central-count. The results for LEOs using hand-counted papersystems are not conclusive but suggest a preference for optical scan over DRE systems. LEOs have more concerns about the security and performance ofvoting systems they are not using themselves. While LEOs tend to be very satisfiedwith the systems that they are using, they have more reservations about other kinds. Average supportfor other systems was substantially less than that for the system in use. Punchcards, lever machines,and hand-counted paper ballots all received negative average ratings from those LEOs not usingthose systems. DREs and the two types of optical scan received positive ratings on average, withprecinct-count rated the highest. Central-count optical scan was rated a bit higher than DREs, whichis perhaps surprising given the finding discussed above that most jurisdictions planning to obtainnew systems expect to adopt either DREs or precinct-count optical scan. This issue was also examined more specifically for DREs and optical scan users. DRE usersrated their systems higher than non-DRE users in all specific performance categories tested --including security, reliability, usability, and cost -- except for multiple-language capability. Thesame patterns held in comparisons of optical-scan users and nonusers.