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Voting machines are the total combination of mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic equipment (including software, firmware, and documentation required to program control, and support equipment), that is used to define ballots; to cast and count votes; to report or display election results; and to maintain and produce any audit trail information. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use electronic voting machines. A voting system includes the practices and associated documentation used to identify system components and versions of such components; to test the system during its development and maintenance; to maintain records of system errors or defects; to determine specific changes made after initial certification; and to make available any materials to the voter (such as notices, instructions, forms, or paper ballots). Traditionally, a voting machine has been defined by the mechanism the system uses to cast votes and further categorized by the location where the system tabulates the votes. Voting machines have different levels of usability, security, efficiency and accuracy. Certain systems may be more or less accessible to all voters, or not accessible to those voters with certain types of disabilities. They can also have an effect on the public's ability to oversee elections. ==Early history== The first major proposal for the use of voting machines came from the Chartists in 1838.〔Douglas W. Jones, Early Requirements for Mechanical Voting Systems, (First International Workshop on Requirements Engineering for E-voting Systems ), Aug. 31, 2009, Atlanta. ((author's copy )).〕 Among the radical reforms called for in ''The People's Charter'' were universal suffrage and voting by secret ballot. This required major changes in the conduct of elections, and as responsible reformers, the Chartists not only demanded reforms but described how to accomplish them, publishing ''Schedule A'', a description of how to run a polling place, and ''Schedule B'', a description of a voting machine to be used in such a polling place.〔(The People's Charter with the Address to the Radical Reformers of Great Britain and Ireland and a Brief Sketch of its Origin ) Elt and Fox, London, 1848; obverse of title page.〕〔(The People's Charter ) 1839 Edition, in the (radicalism collection ) of the University of Aberdeen.〕 The Chartist voting machine, attributed to Benjamin Jolly of 19 York Street in Bath, allowed each voter to cast one vote in a single race. This matched the requirements of a British parliamentary election. Each voter was to cast his vote by dropping a brass ball into the appropriate hole in the top of the machine by the candidate's name. Each voter could only vote once because each voter was given just one brass ball. The ball advanced a clockwork counter for the corresponding candidate as it passed through the machine, and then fell out the front where it could be given to the next voter. In 1875, Henry Spratt of Kent received a U.S. patent for a voting machine that presented the ballot as an array of push buttons, one per candidate.〔H. W. Spratt, ''Improvement in Voting Apparatus,'' U.S. Patent 158,652, Jan 12. 1875.〕 Spratt's machine was typically British, allowing each voter to cast a fixed number of votes in a single race. In 1881, Anthony Beranek of Chicago patented the first voting machine appropriate for use in a general election in the United States.〔A. C. Beranek, ''Voting Apparatus'', U.S. Patent 248,130, Oct. 11, 1881.〕 Beranek's machine presented an array of push buttons to the voter, with one row per office on the ballot, and one column per party. Interlocks behind each row prevented voting for more than one candidate per race, and an interlock with the door of the voting booth reset the machine for the next voter as each voter left the booth. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「voting machine」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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