chad noun [C] /td/ a small piece of paper or card which is left over when holes are punched in data cards, voting slips, etc. chadless adjective /tdls/ ‘… despite tens of millions of dollars spent after the Florida recount fiasco to update American voting technology, chad is alive and well — and just as threatening as ever.’ (ABC News, 11th September 2004)
‘Ventura County voters Tuesday will use a chadless punch-card machine that employs a chrome level to mark choices ...’ (Yolo County Voting Technology Advisory Committee, 28th February 2004)
It seems amazing to think that pesky little pieces of paper could cause a major controversy at an American presidential election, but that is exactly what happened in 2000, when the vote in Florida had to be recounted amid concerns that chad, the little bits of card or paper which pop out when a voter punches their ballot slip, had rendered many votes indecipherable by not completely detaching themselves! The whole fiasco was subsequently referred to rather humorously as Chadgate (a blend of chad and –gate, a suffix which has entered productive use in the media to denote any kind of scandal). For the election of November 2004, tens of millions of dollars have been spent to update American voting technology and employ chadless systems (voting procedures which avoid punching holes in card). Despite this, there are still 19 states which are using the punch-card system in some form, with more than 30 million registered voters potentially punching chad on November 2nd. Background No one is quite certain about the origins of the noun chad, though various unsubstantiated theories exist. (For one story exploring the origins of the word, see this article.) Opinion has also varied on chad’s countability. Originally, it was thought of as a mass noun, with phrases such as a piece of chad being used to refer to one of the little bits of paper. With popular use however, chad has become countable, with an identical plural form chad (by analogy with nouns such as sheep, where the singular and plural forms are the same). More recently, a plural form chads has also begun to emerge. The hole which is left behind when a piece of paper is successfully punched is now often referred to as a chad hole. The noun chad has assumed such significance that after the presidential election in 2000 an entire taxonomy of chad types was proposed, including: dimpled chad: a chad which only has a slight indentation and is still fully attached to the card pregnant/nipple chad: a chad which has a bulging indentation but is still fully attached to the card hanging chad: a chad which has only one corner attached to the card swinging chad: a chad which has two corners attached to the card tri-chad: a chad which has three corners attached to the card Dimpled and pregnant/nipple chads on voting cards mean that the vote is not counted, whereas hanging, swinging and tri-chads should not prevent a vote from being counted.
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