Type of voting equipment used by election jurisdictions in the United States
Election Data Services conducts studies on voting equipment usage every two years before the November general elections. The first study was conducted in 1980 for the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Since 1986, the studies have been conducted independently. The studies analyze trends in the acquisition and use six types of voting equipment by state and local election jurisdictions for precinct voting on Election Day. The six equipment types are (1) Punch Cards, (2) mechanical Lever machines, (3) hand-counted Paper ballots, (4) Optical Scanning devices, (5) Electronic devices, and (6) Mixed—multiple types of equipment. In early studies, the Punch Card category was subdivided into DataVote and Votomatic-style punch cards.
The primary resource for the voting equipment studies is a nationwide Election Administration Database that Election Data Services has maintained since 1986. The database covers some 8,000 state, county, and township-level election jurisdictions. The Voting Equipment section of the database is periodically updated from surveys, interviews, news articles, and inventories compiled by state election authorities. Each study produces a map that depicts voting equipment usage across the United States at the county level. The map is color-coded by equipment type. Charts accompanying the map show trends in voting equipment usage based on percentages of counties and registered voters using each type of equipment.
Read about voting equipment studies from recent election years, and view maps, charts, and statistical reports from those studies.
Voting Equipment Studies (by year)