Category Overview

Voting Systems — Election Security Glossary

1,792 election security terms in the Voting Systems category, with definitions sourced from NIST, CISA, EAC, and 30+ authoritative documents.

Browse all 1,792 terms in Voting Systems

In Person Disability Access Voting

A "procedure in which a voter may come in person to a and DISABILITY ACCESS LOCATION cast a ballot during the PERIOD." R.C.W.

Medium consensus1 source

In Use State

A of a when the device has been activated for a VOTING STATE VOTE-CAPTURE DEVICE and a ballot has been presented to a voter.

Medium consensus1 source

Inactive Elector

An "individual who failed to vote in the preceding federal general election and whose name was placed on an inactive list." Mont.

Medium consensus1 source

Inactive List

A "list of ELECTORS." Mont. Code Ann.

Medium consensus1 source

Inactive Voter

A registered voter whose address is believed to have changed and who has failed to respond to notice to confirm his address.

Medium consensus1 source

Incapacitated Absentee Voter

A "voter who, due to incapacity, is unable to complete his ballot." N.J.

Medium consensus1 source

Incident Report

A "record made by election judges in the polling place on election day of unusual events that occurred in that polling place on election day." Minn.

Medium consensus1 source

Incoming Voting List

The "list of all of the voters in a municipality which is used by election officials at a voting place to record which voters have been issued a ballot at an election." Me.

Medium consensus1 source

Incoming Voting List Tape

The "list of all of the voters in a municipality which is used by election officials at a voting place to record which voters have been issued a ballot at an election." Me.

Medium consensus1 source

Incumbent

A "candidate for the same office which he or she holds at the time of filing the nomination papers, and was elected to that office by a vote of the people." Cal.

Medium consensus1 source

Independence

The ability of a disabled voter to vote without requiring a human assistant to whom her vote would be revealed.

Medium consensus1 source

Independent Ballot

"Ballots voted for any person whose name does not appear on the machine as a nominated candidate for office, are referred to ...

Medium consensus1 source

By ESG Editorial Team · Drawing on NIST, the EAC, VVSG, IEEE, and 30+ authoritative sources on voting system design and certification

Voting systems are the machines, software, and supporting infrastructure through which voters mark, cast, and have their ballots counted. The category includes optical scanners, ballot-marking devices, direct-recording electronic (DRE) systems, hand-marked paper ballots, and the back-end systems that aggregate results from precincts and report them to the public.

Why this category matters for election security is rooted in the trust voters place in the systems that record their intent. A voting system that loses votes, that miscounts, or that allows manipulation without detection undermines the legitimacy of the entire election. Conversely, a system that is well designed, well tested, and well understood by election officials produces results that withstand scrutiny even when contested. The work of building and maintaining that trustworthiness is continuous.

Federal testing and certification programs establish a baseline. The Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG), administered by the Election Assistance Commission, define the technical and security requirements a system must meet to be used in federal elections. State testing goes further in some cases, certifying specific configurations, requiring additional documentation, or limiting the use of particular system features. Once a system is in the field, the work of securing it continues through patch management, configuration control, and pre-election logic and accuracy testing.

The terminology in this category reflects the technical and procedural landscape that voting systems inhabit. The concepts here are not optional. Every term describes a system property that has been the subject of standards, recommendations, and in some cases federal law.

Key Concepts

Voting System

The integrated hardware and software used by voters to cast ballots and by election officials to count them.

Optical Scan

A voting system that reads marked paper ballots using optical sensors and counts the marks electronically.

Ballot Marking Device

A device that allows voters to mark their choices on an electronic interface, then prints a human-readable paper ballot.

Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail

A printed paper record produced simultaneously with an electronic vote, allowing the voter to confirm their choices before casting.

Cast Vote Record

The permanent record of a single vote as captured and stored by a voting system, in electronic and/or paper form.

Direct Recording Electronic

A voting system that records votes directly into electronic memory, with or without a contemporaneous paper record.

Voluntary Voting System Guidelines

The federal technical standards published by the EAC that define security, accuracy, and accessibility requirements for certified voting systems.

How These Terms Relate

These concepts together describe the technical core of how votes are cast and counted. A voting system is more than a single device. It is an integrated chain of hardware, software, and procedures that begins when a voter enters the booth and ends when results are reported. The terminology here covers that full chain. Optical scan, ballot-marking devices, DRE systems, and VVPAT each represent different points on a spectrum of automation and paper reliance. The choice between them is a policy decision shaped by jurisdiction, voter expectations, and the trade-offs between speed, accessibility, auditability, and security.