Punch card

The punch card (or "Hollerith" card) is a recording medium for holding information for use by automated data processing machines. Made of stiff cardboard, the punch card represents information by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions on the card. In the first generation of computing, from the 1920s into the 1950s, punch cards were the primary medium for data storage and processing. Eventually the punch card would be phased out and replaced with huge floppys for media storage, for loading data, in the late 1970's, early 1980's.

Dimpled and hanging chads

The term for the punched card area which is removed during a punch is chad. One notorious problem with a punched card system of tabulation is the incomplete punch; this can lead to a smaller hole than expected, or to a mere slit on the card, or to a mere dimple on the card. Thus a chad which is still attached to the card is a hanging chad. This technical problem was claimed by the Democratic Party to have influenced the 2000 U.S. presidential election in the state of Florida; critics claimed that voting machines which used punched cards to tabulate votes generated improperly rendered records of several hundred votes, spread out over an entire state, which allegedly tipped the vote in favor of George W. Bush over Al Gore.

Related Topics:
Hanging chad - 2000 U.S. presidential election - Florida - Voting machine - George W. Bush - Al Gore

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Some consider it to be a minor scandal that punch card-based voting machines have continued to be used over the next several years, including the 2004 U.S. presidential race. Others who have used the system for years without the slightest problem cannot understand how it could be such an issue.

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