The 19th century was an age of invention, and innovators believed that they could engineer a mechanical voting system that would "protect mechanically the voter from rascaldom, and make the process of casting the ballot perfectly plain, simple and secret."
One inventor, Jacob H. Myers, had much in common with 20th century innovation in vote counting: the financial sector. Myers was known for building safes before he turned his expertise to counting votes.
In 1891, New York state made it legal to use the new Myers Automatic Booth. By 1920, the mechanical pull-lever voting machine was the official voting method in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.
However, the machine's reliability rested, in part, on the honesty of the election officials. The election officials had to "zero" out the the counters before any vote. More troublesome, when the gears stopped counting (and they did get jammed, accidentally or on purpose), no one knew.
In 1960, when upstart John F. Kennedy defeated Richard M. Nixon by just one tenth of one percentage point (0.1%), about half of the estimated 65 million ballots were cast on mechanical lever voting machines.
I can make them voting machines sing Home Sweet Home.
- Earl (Huey) Long
One inventor, Jacob H. Myers, had much in common with 20th century innovation in vote counting: the financial sector. Myers was known for building safes before he turned his expertise to counting votes.
In 1891, New York state made it legal to use the new Myers Automatic Booth. By 1920, the mechanical pull-lever voting machine was the official voting method in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.
However, the machine's reliability rested, in part, on the honesty of the election officials. The election officials had to "zero" out the the counters before any vote. More troublesome, when the gears stopped counting (and they did get jammed, accidentally or on purpose), no one knew.
In 1960, when upstart John F. Kennedy defeated Richard M. Nixon by just one tenth of one percentage point (0.1%), about half of the estimated 65 million ballots were cast on mechanical lever voting machines.
I can make them voting machines sing Home Sweet Home.
- Earl (Huey) Long