Monday, November 03, 2008

Four strong winds



After all these years, I thought a clarification was in order.

Chad, mentioned so often during the 2000 Florida recount debacle, is the debris from punching holes in computer punch cards.



Later, the term was expanded to include debris from the round holes punched into paper and mylar tape, used for computer programming as well.



And logically, the use of the word also includes the debris from poking holes into paper ballots. Hence the infamous and not correct expression "hanging chads".



An individual piece, from either a punch car or tape, is a piece of chad, not an individual chad.

Get it? Chad is the overall product. Like sand.

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