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
State Ballot Counting Review Board
An Alaska body performing the function of a BOARD.
State Ballot Law Commission
A Maryland body that evaluates objections to nominating petitions.
State Board Of Election Commissioners
In Arkansas, a 13-member body that examines electronic voting equipment.
State Board Of Election Supervisors
In Louisiana, a seven-member body that formulates election regulations, conducts hearings and issues reports to the legislature.
State Board Of Elections
A supervisory election body in Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia.
State Board Of Voting Machine Commissioners
The South Carolina body responsible for certifying voting machines.
State Canvassing Board
A state-level board that supervises the CANVASS.
State Coordinator Of Elections
In Tennessee, the chief administrative election officer of the state who is appointed by the Secretary of State and who administers the application, operation and interpretation…
State Driver’s License Agency
A term, defined in relating to certain voter registration information obtained from state HAVA, motor vehicle records: "[T]he term `State driver's license agency' means the State…
State Election
An "election to choose a federal, state, or county officer or a delegate to a party convention or to nominate a candidate for federal, state or county office." 63 N.H.
State Election Commissioner
The chief election official in Delaware.
State Elections Board
The body in Wisconsin responsible for administering and enforcing the state's election and campaign finance laws.
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.
Related categories
55 terms
How ballots are designed, marked, and processed through the voting system.
Tabulation65 terms
How votes recorded by voting systems are aggregated into final results.
Certification50 terms
The federal and state processes that approve voting systems for use.
Auditing46 terms
Post-election reviews that confirm voting systems produced correct results.
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