Now let's look at the voting itself. The most important requirement is that each voter must register his or her vote by marking a numbered paper ballot that can be counted and recounted quickly and reliably.
In the early days voters marked paper ballots which were counted and tabulated by hand.
Around 70 years ago the IBM people developed punch cards for handling and tabulating data quickly, reliably and repeatedly. Inexpensive and technologically simple hand punches were developed that could be placed in voting booths to punch IBM cards and until recently these were used for voting in Boulder County. The punches could be set up in minutes, they required no electric power or electronic connection to computers. They were easy for the voter to use. They punched IBM cards which the voter could examine for correctness after punching. The punched cards were deposited in a ballot box w hich was easily transported to a central location to be counted and recounted rapidly by machines. This system of punches and IBM cards met every requirement for a good voting system.
An unsuccessful adaptation of this technology was the introduction of IBM cards on which votes were recorded by using a pointed stylus (or a pencil point) to "punch" out perforated holes in the cards. Frequently this left the infamous "hanging chad" which would gum up the machines that counted the ballots. Instead of replacing the stylus with simple mechanical punches that were widely available that would yield clean punched holes with no chad, election officials threw out the whole system, replacing it with computerized systems that meet none of the requirements for a good voting system.
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