Date	Event
1856	The Australian state of Victoria becomes the first place to use uniform official ballots. This style of paper ballot, later called the Australian Secret Ballot, is printed at the government's expense, lists the names of all candidates and issues in a fixed order, and is counted by hand. 11/13/2000 Mary Bellis "The History of Voting Machines," inventors.about.com
1888	Massachusetts becomes the first state in the U.S. to adopt the Australian Secret Ballot system on a statewide basis. This voting system is still used in some areas of the country (approximately 1% of voters cast hand counted paper ballots in the 2004 U.S. Presidential election). 8/22/2006 Roy Saltman "Independent Verification: Essential Action to Assure Integrity in the Voting Process," National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Report SB134106W0703
1889 Jan. 8	Herman Hollerith patents a method of using punched cards to compile data for the U.S. Census. Although this punchcard system (U.S. Patent 395,782 458KB) was not used for voting, the technology laid the foundation for the punchcard voting systems developed in the 1960's. 1/8/1889 Herman Hollerith U.S. Patent 395,782 Click to Enlarge
1889 Nov. 19	Jacob H. Myers of Rochester, New York patents the first mechanical lever voting machine (U.S. Patent 415,549 502KB). This technology, later called the Myers Automatic Booth, prevents overvotes, speeds up the vote counting process, and significantly reduces the chance of dishonest vote counting because the votes are counted by machine. 11/19/1889 Jacob H. Myers U.S. Patent 415,549 Click to Enlarge
1892	"The Myers Automatic Booth lever voting machine was first used in 1892 in Lockport, New York... Lever machines were on the cutting edge of technology, with more moving parts than almost anything else being made. As such, they were as much of a high-tech solution to the problem of running an honest election as computer tabulated punched-cards in the 1960's or direct-recording electronic voting machines in the 1990's." 2003 Doug Jones "A Brief Illustrated History of Voting," www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting
1930	"By 1930, lever machines had been installed in virtually every major city in the United States." 11/13/2000 Mary Bellis "The History of Voting Machines," inventors.about.com
1962	"The first use of mark-sense [optical scan] ballots was in 1962, in Kern City, California, using a mark-sense system developed by the Norden Division of United Aircraft and the City of Los Angeles. Development of this 15,000 pound system began in 1958... and the system remained in use in Orange County for over a decade. The system also saw use in Oregon, Ohio, and North Carolina." 2003 Doug Jones "A Brief Illustrated History of Voting," www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting
1964	"Fulton and DeKalb Counties in Georgia were the first jurisdictions to use punchcards and computer tally machines when they adopted the system for the 1964 primary election. In the November 1964 Presidential election, these two jurisdictions were joined by Lane County, Oregon, and San Joaquin and Monterey Counties in California, who also adopted the punchcard system." 11/13/2000 Mary Bellis "The History of Voting Machines," inventors.about.com
1965 Aug. 17	Joseph P. Harris, with the help of William Rouverol, patents the Votomatic punchcard voting system (U.S. Patent 3,201,038 521KB). In this system a voter marks their choice by punching a hole in a prescored card marked with numbers which correspond to candidates and ballot issues listed in a separate booklet. The votes are then tabulated by a computerized counting machine. The Votomatic was an improvement upon the punchcard system used the year before and eventually becomes the most commonly used type of punchard voting system. 8/17/1965 Joseph P. Harris U.S. Patent 3,201,038 Click to Enlarge
1974 Feb. 19	Richard H. McKay, along with Paul Ziebold, James Kirby, Douglas Hetzel, and James Syndacker, patents a direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machine that becomes the first DRE to be used in a real election. This push-button machine, commercially named the Video Voter (U.S. Patent 3,793,505 946KB), uses projected light and phototransmitors but does not contain a computer. 2/19/1974 Richard H. McKay U.S. Patent 3,793,505 Click to Enlarge
1975	"The Video Voter was first used in real elections in 1975, in Streamwood and Woodstock Illinois. Following these demonstrations, several Illinois counties purchased the system and used it between 1976 and 1980, approximately." 2003 Doug Jones "A Brief Illustrated History of Voting," www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting
1975 March	Roy Saltman prepares the first U.S. government report to evaluate computerized voting technology. "Effective Use of Computing Technology in Vote-Tallying" 7.2 MB investigates voting system security, design, and functionality, as well as the ability to conduct audits of election processes and ballot recounts. This paper initiates the federal Voting Systems Standards program. March 1975 Roy Saltman "Effective Use of Computing Technology in Vote-Tallying," National Bureau of Standards (NBS) Special Publication 500-30
1977 May 3	James O. Narey, with the help of William Saylor, patents (U.S. Patent 4,021,780 1.52 MB) the first model of the modern precinct-based optical scan systems in use today. 5/3/1977 James O. Narey U.S. Patent 4,021,780 Click to Enlarge
1982	"In 1982, the AIS [American Information Systems] model 315 central-count ballot tabulator saw its first official use in several Nebraska counties. In 1997, AIS was reorganized as Election Systems and Software [ES&S] after a merger with Business Records Corporation." The AIS model 315 became the first optical scan system to be widely used throughout the United States. 2003 Doug Jones "A Brief Illustrated History of Voting," www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/voting
1987 Feb. 3	The R.F. Shoup Corporation and Chief Engineer Robert J. Boram patent the Shouptronic ELECTronic voting machine (U.S. Patent 4,641,240 505KB). This push-button machine was one of the first direct recording electronic voting machines to achieve significant commercial success. 2/3/1987 R.F. Shoup Corporation U.S. Patent 4,641,240 Click to Enlarge
1988	Roy Saltman states in his report "Accuracy, Integrity, and Security in Computerized Vote-Tallying" 230KB that "the use of pre-scored punch cards contributes to the inaccuracy and to the lack of confidence. It is generally not possible to exactly duplicate a count obtained on pre-scored punch cards, given the inherent physical characteristics of these ballots and variability in the ballot-punching performance of real voters. It is recommended that the use of pre-scored punch card ballots be ended." Despite his warning, use of punchcard voting systems continues until widespread problems in the 2000 U.S. Presidential election prompt these systems to be banned by the Help America Vote Act of 2002. August 1988 Roy Saltman "Accuracy, Integrity, and Security in Computerized Vote-Tallying," NBS Special Publication 500-158
1990	The Federal Election Commission (FEC) releases the first set of standards for computer-based voting systems. The "Performance and Test Standards for Punchcard, Marksense [optical scan], and Direct Recording Electronic Voting Systems" 449KB are commonly referred to as the Voting Systems Standards (VSS). November 1998 Federal Election Commission "History of the Voting Systems Standards Program," www.fec.gov
1996	"The first governmental election to be conducted over the Internet in the US was the 1996 Reform Party Presidential primary, in which Internet voting was offered, along with vote-by-mail and vote-by-phone, as an option to party members who did not attend the party convention." 2003 Lorrie Cranor "In Search of the Perfect Voting Technology: No Easy Answers," in Secure Electronic Voting, D. Gritzalis, ed.
1996	Dr. Michael Shamos offers The DRE Tampering Challenge 3KB, in which he states "I do not believe it is feasible in practice to tamper undetectably with a well-designed direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machine. To demonstrate my conviction, I am willing to bet $10,000." As of January 29, 2007, no one has participated in Dr. Shamos' challenge. 2007 Michael Shamos "The DRE Tampering Challenge," euro.ecom.cmu.edu/people/faculty/mshamos/index.shtml
2000 Nov. 7	Problems with punchcard voting systems, particularly in Florida, in the 2000 Presidential Election between George W. Bush and Al Gore put voting technology in the national spotlight. Inaccurate registration lists, unclear ballot designs, high numbers of spoiled ballots, and questions about voter intent on cards where the chad, the small piece of paper punched out of punchcard ballots, was not fully punched out were among the problems. "Hanging chad," "dimpled chad," and "pregnant chad" are phrases that enter everyday conversation. 12/11/2000 CNN "How We Got Here: A Timeline of the Florida Recount" After the Presidential Election in "November 2000... many Americans first recognized that their electoral system had serious problems with flawed voter registration lists, obsolete voting machines, poorly designed ballots, and inadequate procedures for interpreting disputed votes." September 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform Building Confidence in U.S. Elections
2001	Faculty from the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology create the Voting Technology Project in the wake of the 2000 election to provide "strong academic guidance in this intersection of technology with democracy." They offer several recommendations to improve election administration for the future in their July, 2001 report Voting: What Is and What Could Be. July 2001 Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project Voting: What Is and What Could Be
2002 May	The FEC releases an updated version of the standards for electronic voting systems. The Voting Systems Standards 2.38 MB expand on the first set of standards by focusing on the voting medium instead of specific kinds of voting systems and addressing accessibility, usability, telecommunications, and audit trails. 11/9/2005 Congressional Research Service "Federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines: Summary and Analysis of Issues," CRS Report RL33146
2002 Oct. 29	President George W. Bush signs the first law to specifically address voting technology. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) is "an act to establish a program to provide funds to States to replace punch card voting systems, to establish the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of Federal elections and to otherwise provide assistance with the administration of certain Federal election laws and programs, to establish minimum election administration standards for States and units of local government with responsibility for the administration of Federal elections, and for other purposes." 10/29/2002 Help America Vote Act 116KB The Help America Vote Act of 2002 is signed into law in an effort to improve voting systems across the country. The law mandates that all polling places have at least one handicap-accessible voting device, guarantees that any voter not appearing on a registration list has the right to cast a provisional vote, assures that all voters have the opportunity to review their selections before casting a ballot, establishes the Election Assistance Commission, and authorizes $3.9 billion in federal funds for replacing lever machines and punchcard voting systems with either DREs or optical scan systems with accessible ballot marking devices. 12/15/2003 Online NewsHour "Help America Vote Act," www.pbs.org/newshour
2002	Following passage of HAVA, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is established. The EAC is tasked with providing support and technical guidance on the administration of federal elections, disbursing the funds allocated under HAVA, developing a new set of standards, implementing a new program for testing and certifying voting machines, and serving as a clearinghouse of election information. October 2002 U.S. Election Assistance Commission "About The EAC," www.eac.gov
2002	Georgia becomes the first state to implement the use of direct recording electronic voting machines on a statewide basis, deploying the DREs at the same time in every county and paying for the implementation with state funds instead of county funds. 11/1/2002 Cathy Cox "Georgia's Unique Model for Election Reform," www.sos.state.ga.us
2003 July 23	Computer security experts Avi Rubin and Dan Wallach, along with graduate students Tadayoshi Kohno and Adam Stubblefield, evaluate the security of a particular model of electronic voting machine based on source code they found on the Internet. Their analysis reveals several vulnerabilities that lead them to conclude these systems should not be used for federal elections. This critique is the first independent security analysis to raise concern about DREs and inspires many computer scientists to join the debate over the use of electronic voting machines. 7/23/2003 Avi Rubin and Dan Wallach "Analysis of an Electronic Voting System," Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute Technical Report TR-2003-19
2003 Aug. 14	"The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is 'committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.' The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold, Inc - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election." 8/23/2003 Cleveland Plain Dealer "Voting Machine Controversy," Cleveland Plain Dealer
2003 Dec. 9	"The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) today announced a group of leading election systems companies will align with ITAA to form the Election Technology Council (ETC). ETC members will work together to raise the profile of electronic voting, identify and address security concerns with electronic voting, develop a code of ethics for companies in the electronic voting sector, and make recommendations in the areas of election system standards and certification." 12/9/2003 Election Technology Council "Election Technology Council Press Release," www.electiontech.org
2004 Apr. 30	Secretary of State Kevin Shelley decertifies all touchscreen electronic voting machines in the state of California and bans their use in four counties that had been using them until significant improvements are made to the security of the systems. 4/30/2004 Kevin Shelley "California Secretary of State News Release," www.ss.ca.gov
2004 May 5	The U.S. Election Assistance Commission conducts their first public meeting, inviting testimony from a diversity of experts including election officials, computer scientists, disability advocates, and voting machine manufacturers. 4/27/2004 U.S. Election Assistance Commission "Election Assistance Commission Media Advisory," www.eac.gov
2004 July 16	Nevada becomes the first state to mandate that all electronic voting machines used for federal elections be equipped with printers that produce a voter-verified paper audit trail. 7/16/2004 Dean Heller "Certification of Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail Printer Completed," www.sos.state.nv.us
2004 Nov.	During the November 2004 General Election in Carteret County, North Carolina electronic voting machines lost 4,438 votes. The manufacturer, Unilect, claimed the machines could store up to 10,500 votes but they actually only held 3,005 votes. Officials were unaware of the problem because the machines kept accepting votes after their memory was full, despite not being able to store them, and those votes were irretrievably lost. 2005 Ellen Theisen "Myth Breakers: Facts About Electronic Elections," www.votersunite.org
2005 Sept.	The Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by President Jimmy Carter and former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, releases a report. Building Confidence in U.S. Elections makes several recommendations for improving confidence in elections and modernizing election administration, including a recommendation that all DREs include voter-verified paper audit trails. September 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform Building Confidence in U.S. Elections
2005 Dec.	Black Box Voting, Inc. sets up a demonstration in Leon County, Florida in which computer security experts Harri Hursti and Herbert Thompson are able to hack into the central vote tabulator of an electronic voting system and change the outcome of a mock election without leaving any trace of their actions. This exercise demonstrates that the software running electronic voting systems is vulnerable to tampering. 1/19/2006 Herbert Thompson "Expert Calls for Increased E-Voting Security," interview with ComputerWorld magazine, www.computerworld.com
2005 Dec. 13	The EAC unanimously adopts the 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 4.06 MB. These new standards significantly increase security requirements for voting systems and expand accessibility for disabled individuals, including opportunities to vote privately and independently. The Guidelines will take effect in December 2007, at which time all previous standards will become obsolete. 12/13/2005 U.S. Election Assistance Commission "Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines Introduction," www.eac.gov
2006 Jan. 1	"Beginning in 2006, HAVA requires that voting systems notify voters of overvotes and permit them to review their ballots and correct errors before casting their votes.... Also beginning in 2006, [HAVA requires] that each polling place used in a federal election have at least one voting machine that is fully accessible for persons with disabilities." 11/4/2003 Congressional Research Service "Election Reform and Electronic Voting Systems (DREs): Analysis of Security Issues," CRS Report RL32139
2006 May 11	Black Box Voting, Inc. and computer security specialist Harri Hursti perform a security test on an electronic voting machine delivered to Emery County, Utah. Hursti shows that the machine contains backdoors that allow the software to be modified in several ways, including a type of attack in which the cheating software can be installed months or years before it is executed. 5/11/2006 Harri Hursti and Black Box Voting, Inc. "Security Alert: Critical Security Issues with Diebold TSx," www.blackboxvoting.org
2006 Sept. 13	Computer security expert Dr. Edward Felten, with the help of graduate students Ariel Feldman and J. Alex Halderman, demonstrates that with less than a minute of physical access to a Diebold electronic voting machine or its PCMCIA memory card, an attacker could install malware that could steal votes while modifying all records, logs, and counters to be consistent with the fraudulent vote count it creates and could also introduce a voting machine virus that spreads from machine to machine. 9/13/2006 Edward Felten "Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine," Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University
2006 Sept. 21	Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. (R) publicly urges voters to vote by absentee paper ballot instead of using the state's electronic voting machines in the November 2006 General Election after problems with the machines emerged during Maryland's primary. His announcement represents a complete change of opinion about DREs because Maryland had previously been one of the first states to implement electronic voting machines on a statewide basis while Ehrlich was governor in 2002. 9/22/2006 Christian Davenport "Democrats Blast Ehrlich's Absentee-Voting Initiative," Washington Post
2006 Nov. 7	Because of funding made available and changes mandated by the Help America Vote Act, use of DREs in the General Election is the highest in U.S. history. According to Election Data Services, "voting system changes this year were dominated by smaller jurisdictions,where resources to help the conversion are more limited... Thirty-six percent (36%) of the counties, with 38.4% of the registered voters, will be using direct recording electronic (DRE) equipment." 10/2/2006 Election Data Services "Almost 55 Million, or One-Third of the Nation's Voters, Will Face New Voting Equipment in 2006 Election," www.electiondataservices.com
2007 Jan. 4	The New York Times reports that CIBER Inc., the nation's largest tester of electronic voting machine software, was denied accreditation by the EAC in July 2006. Because CIBER had tested many of the electronic voting systems used in the November 2006 election and its failure to receive accreditation was not disclosed until January 2007, many election officials unknowingly employed DREs that had not been tested by an accredited lab. 1/4/2007 Christopher Drew "U.S. Bars Lab From Testing Electronic Voting," New York Times

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