Flossi Getting Out the Vote

Lever voting machines tabulated results mechanically through a system of gears, levers, and counters without the need for electricity or electronic components. Here’s how they worked:

 1. Setting Up the Machine

   - Each machine had a large face with rows of levers or switches corresponding to candidates or ballot options. Voters would pull a lever next to their chosen candidate or issue.

   - The machine was "locked" initially, ensuring no one could view the counters until the polls closed.

 2. Casting a Vote

   - The voter entered the booth, pulled down a lever to indicate their choice, and locked in their selection by pulling a large master lever at the end.

   - Pulling the master lever registered the vote internally and simultaneously reset the individual voting levers to prevent double voting.

   - Each time a lever was pulled, it mechanically advanced a counter associated with the candidate or ballot measure, logging a single vote on that counter.

 3. Tabulation Mechanism

   - Inside the machine, each vote choice had its own mechanical counter. When a voter pulled the lever for a particular candidate or choice, it rotated a gear connected to the counter for that selection, incrementing it by one.

   - These counters, called "odometer-style" counters, displayed the cumulative total for each candidate or option and were visible to election officials when the machine was opened.

 4. Reading the Results

   - At the end of the election, officials would open the back of the machine to view the final tallies.

   - The counters for each candidate or ballot measure were displayed, showing the total number of votes each received.

   - Officials would manually record these numbers, which would then be added to other precincts' totals.

 5. Preventing Fraud

   - Since each lever could only advance the counter by one vote per pull, the machines had built-in protections against ballot stuffing.

   - Mechanical interlocks prevented voters from selecting multiple options in the same race, thus reducing errors.

Lever voting machines were considered reliable due to their simplicity, and because they tabulated results on internal counters, they left no paper trail. However, the lack of an audit mechanism eventually became a disadvantage, especially compared to more modern voting systems with digital records or paper backups.