Punch-card voting systems
With punch-card
voting systems, the ballot is a card (or cards) and the voters punch holes in
it (with a supplied punch device) next to their candidate or choice. After
punching the hole(s), the voter may place the ballot in a ballot box, or the voter
may feed the ballot into an electronic vote tabulating device at the voting
place.
Two common types of punch-card voting systems are the
"Votomatic" and the "Datavote" system. With the Votomatic
card, the locations at which holes may be punched to indicate votes are each
assigned numbers. The number of the hole is the only information printed on the
card. The list of candidates or ballot issue choices and directions for
punching the corresponding holes are printed in a separate booklet. With the Datavote
card, the name of the candidate or description of the choice is printed on the
ballot next to the location of the hole to be punched. The re-count of ballots in Florida during the
2000 presidential election created a debate about the reliability of punch-card
voting systems. After 2000, the popularity of punch-card voting systems in the
US decreased significantly.
Optical scan (voting) systems
These systems
use an optical scanner to read and count marked ballot papers. Various systems
can be defined as optical scan (voting) systems including
- marksense systems whereby an optical mark (e.g. made with a
graphite pencil on the ballot paper) can be recognized by a scanner
- electronic ballot markers (EBM) that can be used to fill out optical scan
ballots. The systems look like traditional DREs, but they record votes on paper
ballots instead of internal memory. EBM can aid a disabled voter in marking a
paper ballot; it can allow for audio interfaces
- digital pen: these systems use ballots on digital paper. A small
camera in the pen is able to recognize where the voter marks the digital ballot
paper. The ballots are collected in the polling station and the digital pen has
to be returned to the elections staff for tabulation.
Optical
scan voting systems combine paper with electronic devices. All the systems keep
a tangible ballot paper which serves as a tangible record of the voter´s
intent. By that, optical scan systems allow for manual recounts of ballots. The
big advantage is that the counting process can be done in a central place and
that the counting is much faster. The system is easily understandable by the
voter: for him/her it doesn´t really change much; they can still mark their
preference on a ballot paper. And if – for whatever reason – the scanning
system fails to work, ballots can be counted manually.
Direct-recording electronic (DRE)
voting machines
With a
DRE machine, voting can be done on Election Day or it can be used as an advance
voting device in polling stations. It is easily understandable: the voter just
pushes a button next to his/her favourite candidate or choice. Or the DRE
machines have a touch screen displaying the ballot. After the election or
referendum, the DRE machine produces a tabulation of the voting data stored in
a removable memory component and/or as printed copy. The system may also allow
for transmission of individual ballots or vote totals to a central location.
The result can then be consolidated in one central place.
DRE
voting machines started to be massively used in 1996 in Brazil. They were also
used on a large scale in the US after the Florida 2000 experience.
Vision-impaired voters benefit from DRE machines because they can cast their
vote without help from another person. DRE machines were also deployed in
Europe, e.g. in the Netherlands, where the company NEDAP provided their own DRE
machines since 1989. They were used in the Netherlands until 2006. In 2009, the
German Constitutional Court found that the DRE-type voting machines used in
parliamentary elections in Germany were unconstitutional since they did not
allow citizens to examine the determination of the result.
Voter-verified paper audit trail
A
voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verified paper record (VPR) is not
an e-voting system itself, but refers to a component that can be combined with
various forms of non-document ballot voting systems. VVPAT means that a paper
ballot for each vote is printed by the electronic device that was used to cast
the vote. A VVPAT is intended as an independent verification system for voting
machines designed to allow voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly,
to detect possible election fraud or malfunction, and to provide a means to
audit the stored electronic results.
Internet voting
Internet
voting refers to the use of the Internet to cast and/or transmit the vote.
Internet voting can take various forms depending on whether it is used in
uncontrolled environments (remote Internet voting) or not (Polling Site
Internet Voting, Kiosk Voting). With remote Internet voting neither the client
machines nor the physical environment are under the control of election
officials. Voters can cast their vote at practically any place (at home, at the
workplace, at public Internet terminals etc.). The vote is then transmitted
over the Internet. This method offers the most advantages to voters, but at the
same time it suffers from them most security concerns. They include doubts
about the Internet as a means of transmission of confidential information, fear
of hacker attacks and anxiety about the possibility of undue influence being
exerted on the voter during the voting process (e.g. ‘family voting’).
The
other options (polling site Internet voting or kiosk voting) refer to systems
where voters cast their ballot from client machines that are physically
situated in official polling stations or in public places that are controlled
by election officials. In both cases, hardware and software components are
controlled by election officials. The difference is that with polling site
Internet voting the authentication of the voters may take place by traditional
means and with kiosk voting (in public places), the physical environment and
voter authentication are not directly under control of election officials.
New Voting Technology (NVT)
In some
international documents (e.g. the OSCE/ODIHR Handbook for the Observation of
New Voting Technologies (October 2013)) the
term “New Voting Technology” is used instead of e-voting. They usually mean the
same thing and can be used synonymously. E.g. the OSCE/ODIHR defines NVT as the
use of information and communications technologies (ICT) applied to the casting
and counting of votes. This understanding includes the use of electronic voting
systems, ballot scanners and Internet voting.
