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

Independent Candidate

1. A "person who is running for nomination or election to a public office but who does not represent a political party." Wyo.

Medium consensus1 source

Independent Testing Authority

(deprecated) A "provider of engineering, testing or evaluation services, certified by the National Association of State Election Directors as qualified to conduct QUALIFICATION on…

Medium consensus1 source

Independent Voter Verifiable Record

"Records produced by a that supports (e.g., VOTE-CAPTURE DEVICE VOTER VERIFICATION and EBM)." VVSG.

Medium consensus1 source

Indiana Ballot

A ballot containing a list in columns of all candidates of each party, enabling the voter to cast a by marking the top on one column to vote for every candidate in that…

Medium consensus1 source

Indirectly Verifiable

Allowing the voter to verify a representation of her ballot by using a software or hardware intermediary.

Medium consensus1 source

Infusion

A software application of Hart InterCivic that converts external data for importation into BOSS.

Medium consensus1 source

Initial Balloting

The process of tabulating ballots before any RECOUNT.

Medium consensus1 source

Initial Processing

"All steps taken to prepare for tabulation, except for the reading of ballots ABSENTEE BALLOTS by an electronic vote tallying system.

Medium consensus1 source

Initial Recount

A preliminary to which a candidate is entitled by law if certain grounds are present.

Medium consensus1 source

Initial System Response Time

The "time taken from when the voter performs some detectible action (such as pressing a button) to when the voting system begins responding in some obvious way (such as an audible…

Medium consensus1 source

Initiative

A method of having laws enacted by the public directly instead of through a legislative body.

Medium consensus1 source

Innovation Class

A of voting systems that claim to exhibit but which do not CLASS SOFTWARE INDEPENDENCE use RECORDS, hence for which there may not be testable INDEPENDENT VOTER-VERIFIABLE…

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.