Glossary

Election Technology Library

Our comprehensive glossary of election technology and administration terms.

absentee ballot	ballot used by remotely by voter who expects to be absent from the polls on Election Day
acceptance testing	Examination of a voting system and its components by the purchasing election authority (usually in a simulated-use environment) to validate performance of delivered units in accordance with procurement requirements, and to validate that the delivered system is, in fact, the certified or qualified system purchased.
accessibility	Measurable characteristic that indicates the degree to which a system is available to, and usable by, individuals with disabilities. The most common disabilities include those associated with vision, hearing and mobility, as well as cognitive disabilities. The HAVA also includes accessibility requirements for Native American and Alaska Native citizens and alternative language access for voters with limited English proficiency.
accreditation	The term used by NIST for formal recognition that a laboratory is competent to carry out specific tests or calibrations or types of tests or calibrations.
active Voter	A registered voter, who is not considered inactive. (see Inactive Voter)
audio ballot	Voter interface which provides the voter with audio stimuli and allows the voter to communicate intent to the voting system through vocalization or physical actions. [A ballot that is read to voters through headphones, usually used by visually impaired voters]
audit	Systematic, independent, documented process for obtaining records, statements of fact or other relevant information and assessing them objectively to determine the extent to which specified requirements are fulfilled.
audit trail	Record showing access to a computer system and the operations that have been performed during a given period of time.
ballot format	See ballot style.
ballot image	Electronically produced record of all votes cast by a single voter.
ballot rotation	Process of varying the order of the candidate names within a given contest to reduce the impact of voter bias towards the candidate(s) listed first.
ballot style	One of any number of specific ballot configurations issued to the appropriate precinct. At a minimum, ballot formats differ from one another in content. They may also differ in size of type, graphical presentation, in language used, or in method of presentation (e.g., visual or audio).
butterfly ballot	In the 2000 election Palm beach County, the two page punch card ballot was implemented because the large number of candidates would not have legibly fit on a standard single page ballot. It is believed that this ballot design led to voter confusion.
calibration	Set of operations which establish, under specified conditions, the relationship between values indicated by a measuring instrument or measuring system, or values represented by a material measure, and the corresponding known values of a measurand.
canvass	Compilation of election returns and validation of the outcome that form the basis of the official results.
central count	Processing or counting of ballots from multiple polling locations at a single location, and usually in reference to punch card or optically scanned (marksense) ballots.
certification testing	State examination and testing, of a voting system to determine its compliance with state laws, regulations, and rules and any other state requirements for vote systems.
chad	When punchcard ballots are voted small perforated paper circles are "punched" from from the card. Chads that remain partially attached can be known as "hanging chads," chads that are dented but still completely attached are sometimes known as "pregnant chads."
CVAP	Citizen Voting Age Population. Persons in an election jurisdiction who are age 18 or older and who are U.S. citizens.
data integrity	Data accuracy is defined in terms of ballot position error rate. This rate applies to the voting functions and supporting equipment that capture, record, store, consolidate and report the specific selections, and absence of selections, made by the voter for each ballot position.
deadwood	Can refer to duplicate names, erroneous or obsolete address information, and names of deceased and ineligible persons listed as active voters on voter registration rolls.
decertification	Withdrawal of certification of voting system hardware and software Association: testing, conformity assessment.
DRE	Voting system that records votes by means of a ballot display provided with mechanical or electro-optical components that can be actuated by the voter, that processes the data by means of a computer program, and that records voting data and cast vote records in internal and/or external memory components. It produces a tabulation of the voting data stored in a removable memory component and/or in printed copy.
drop-off	see residual vote
early voting	ballot cast by a voter at a designated polling site prior to Election Day.
EAC	U.S. Election Assistance Commission
EBM	See Electronically-assisted ballot Marker
Election Day registration (EDR)	EDR allows voters to register and vote on Election Day, the registration deadline does not precede the election.
election definition	Abstract definition of the races and questions that may appear on ballot forms
election management system	Set of processing functions and databases within a Voting System that define, develop and maintain election databases, perform election definition and setup functions, format ballots; count votes, consolidate and report results, and maintain audit trails.
electronically-assisted ballot marker	Machines that provide assistance to voters who are visually-impaired, who have difficulty reading English, or in other cases where a voter has difficulty correctly marking by hand a preprinted paper ballot that is to be counted in optical scan systems. The device marks, or helps mark selected vote choices on a previously inserted, preprinted paper ballot. The machine then provides audio, tactile, or visual feedback to the voter on what choices they have made on the ballot. The resulting ballots are later tabulated on the same unit that processes ordinary hand-marked paper ballots.
FEC	U.S. Federal Election Commission (primarily cover campaign finance)
FVAP	Federal Voting Assistance Program, administers the federal responsibilities of the Presidential designee (Secretary of Defense), under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) of 1986. The Act covers more than six million potential voters. (all military and overseas Americans)
General Election	An election in which voters, regardless of party affiliation, select candidates for public office or vote on ballot issues.
hanging chad	See chad
human computer interaction	Discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.
human factors	Scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.
HAVA	Help America Vote Act of 2002 creates the Election Assistance Commission and expands the federal government's role in elections through mandates, standards and funding.
inactive Voter	A voter whose name or residence address is no longer current and who has not attempted to reregister, has not voted, or appeared to vote at the address of record.
Independent Testing Authority (ITA)	Deprecated, replaced by Voting System Testing Laboratory. Organization certified by the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) to perform qualification testing.
lever machine	see Mechanical Lever Voting Machine
logic and accuracy testing	Testing of the tabulator setups of a new election definition to ensure that the content correctly reflects the election being held (i.e. contests, candidates, number to be elected, ballot styles, etc.) and that all voting positions can be voted for the maximum number of eligible candidates and that results are accurately tabulated and reported.
marksense	System by which votes are recorded by means of marks made in voting response fields designated on one or both faces of a ballot card or series of cards. Marksense systems use an optical scanner or similar sensor to read the ballots.
mechanical lever voting machine	Machine that directly records a voter's choices via mechanical level-actuated controls into a counting mechanism that tallies the votes without using a physical ballot.
motor-voter	See NVRA
NIST	National Institute of Standards Technology
NVLAP	The NIST National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program.
NVRA	National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-31)
optical Scan	A system of recording votes by marks in voting response fields on ballot cards that are read by an optical scanner or similar sensor. Also referred to as "marksense" voting systems.
overvotes	Votes for more choices than are permitted in a contest
paper ballot	Paper ballot voting system. A system of recording votes on paper ballot cards that can be counted and tabulated manually or electronically.
paper-based voting system	Voting system that records votes, counts votes, and produces a tabulation of the vote count, using one or more ballot cards or a written list of choices.
polling place	A facility staffed by poll workers and equipped with voting equipment at which persons residing in a precinct cast ballots in person on Election Day.
precinct	An administrative division of a county or municipality consisting of a contiguous geographic area defined by a map to which voters have been assigned by their residence addresses for voting at an election.
precinct count	Processing or counting of ballots at the same location at which the ballots were cast (precinct).
provisional ballot	A ballot issued when a voter's eligibility has not yet been determined.
punch card	Punch card voting system. A system where votes are recorded by punches in voting response fields on a ballot card
qualification testing	Examination and testing of a computerized voting system by using qualification test standards to determine if the system complies with the qualification performance and test standards and with its own specifications. This process occurs prior to state certification.
residual vote	The difference between the number of ballots counted and the total number of votes for all candidates in a specified contest. Drop-off is a combination of undervotes and overvotes, and is also referred to as the "Drop-off."
second chance voting	Provides that voters are notified when their ballots contain errors and are given a chance to correct them. Required by HAVA.
straight party voting	Mechanism by which voters are permitted to cast a vote indicating the selection of all candidates on the ballot for a single political party.
spoilt ballot	ballot is considered to be spoilt, void, or null if it is regarded by the election authorities to be invalid and thus not included in the tally during vote counting.
straight ticket	See straight party voting
TGDC	Technical Guidelines Development Committee supports the Election Assistance Committee by providing recommendations on voluntary standards and guidelines related to voting equipment and technologies.
undervotes	Votes for fewer choices than are permitted in a contest, including the choice to not vote for any candidate in a contest or any response to a ballot question.
UOCAVA	Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act
usability testing	Encompasses a range of methods that examine how users in the target audience actually interact with a system, in contrast to analytic techniques such as usability inspection.
VAP	Voting Age Population. Persons in an election jurisdiction who are age 18 or older.
verification	Process of evaluating a system or component to determine whether the products of a given development phase satisfy the conditions (such as specifications) imposed at the start of the phase.
voter turnout	Number of persons who participated in an election, including persons who appeared to vote as well as persons who actually voted. Voter turnout is not necessarily the same as ballots cast.
voting machine	A device that records every vote cast on a candidate or ballot measure and that internally or externally totals all votes cast on that device, including a device into which a ballot may be inserted so that votes may be indicated by punching the ballot.
VTD	Voting Tabulation District. A term used by the U.S. Census bureau to refer to a voting precinct.
VVPAT	Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail
VVAAT	Voter Verifiable Audia Audit Trail