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Voting Systems Used in U.S. Presidential Elections Since 1980


I. Background


Data on how many voters use a particular type of voting system in federal elections have been collected since 1980. During this time, there have been 5 types of voting systems used: lever machines, punch cards (including Votomatic and DataVote systems), optical scan, direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines, and paper ballots. Typically, a voting jurisdiction uses one type of voting system throughout the entire jurisdiction. Occasionally, a jurisdiction uses more than one type of voting system during an election. Because of the requirement that votes are cast anonymously, it is not possible to determine how many voters used each system in these jurisdictions. For this reason, data for these jurisdictions are categorized as "mixed systems."

Following the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, in which the ability of certain voting systems to accurately record the intent of voters was questioned, U.S. Congress passed the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). Among the provisions of HAVA was an allocation of funds for jurisdictions to modernize their voting systems. Specifically, money was provided for jurisdictions to replace lever machine and punch card systems with electronic voting machine and optical scan systems. The effect of HAVA on voting system usage is apparent from the 17% increase in the use of electronic voting machines coupled with an 18% decrease in the use of punch cards between the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections.

Overall, there has been a shift from predominantly using manual systems (lever machines, punch cards, and paper ballots) to computer-assisted systems (optical scan and electronic voting machines) in federal elections. The tables and charts below show how system usage has changed since 1980.


II. Usage of Voting Systems in U.S. Presidential Elections by Percentage of Voters*
1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004
1. Lever Machine 43% 39% 32% 28.5% 22% 17% 14%
2. Punch Card** 31% 35% 41% 38.5% 37% 31% 13%
3. Paper 10.5% 8% 6% 4% 2% 1.5% 1%
4. Optical Scan 2% 4% 7.5% 15% 24% 29.5% 35%
5. Direct Recording Electronic Voting Machine (DRE) 1% 1.5% 3.5% 4.5% 7% 12.5% 29.5%
6. Mixed Systems*** 12.5% 12.5% 10% 9.5% 8% 8.5% 7.5%
Sources: Election Data Services , 2004 Election Day Survey and Commission of Federal Election Reform, Building Confidence in U.S. Elections

Notes:
* Percentages are rounded to the nearest 0.5%
** Punch card systems include Votomatic and DataVote systems
*** "Mixed Systems" refers to jurisdictions which use more than one type of voting system. For these jurisdictions, it is not possible to determine how many voters used each system because votes must be cast anonymously. Therefore, the data from these jurisdictions are categorized as "Mixed Systems."



III. Effect of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 on Type of Voting System Used in U.S. Presidential Elections
IV. Comparison of Voting System Usage in 1984 and 2004 U.S. Presidential Elections
IV. 2006 Elections - % of Machine Malfunctions by Manufacturer & Estimated % of Use in Elections by Manufacturer
Sources: VotersUnite.org , ElectionLine.org , All 50 Secretary of State websites


Methodology:
According to VotersUnite.org there were a total of 151 media-reported and documented voting machine malfunctions in 2006. We obtained the percentage of malfunctions by dividing each manufacturer's reported "machine malfunctions" by all "machine malfunctions" (151 total). DRE and optical scan voting systems were included, but lever machines and non-electronic voting machines were not.
To estimate the percentage of use in the 2006 elections by manufacturer, we visited ElectionLine.org and all 50 Secretary of State websites. We tabulated all available state jurisdictions and their chosen voting machine manufacturer/s. (e.g., In Colorado, approximately 36% of jurisdictions used Diebold, 40% used ES&S, 10% used Sequoia, 2% used Hart Inter-Civic, and the remaining 12% represents some other kind of system such as punch cards, lever machines, or paper ballots). Most jurisdictions use more than one kind of system (e.g., approximately 100 % of Hawaiian jurisdictions use ES&S optical scans, while approximately 100% also offer Hart InterCivic DREs with VVPAT).

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