"Hanging
Chad" became popularized from the 2000 presidential race between George W.
Bush and Al Gore.
A "
chad" is the fragments of
paper left over when you punch a hole in a card. Voters in Florida at the time used Votomatic style punched card ballots. So a "hanging
chad" is when you punch a hole in the card, and it doesn't punch the whole way leaving a little piece dangling. A "pregnant
chad" is when you attempt to punch a hole, but it just leaves a bulge and doesn't actually punch through.
The controversy came about when "hanging chads" and "pregnant chads" weren't counted by the machine. People'
s votes weren't counted.
Imagine if you take those tests where you have to fill out the circle completely with a number 2 pencil. But you didn't totally fill the circle out and your answer was marked wrong.
I tried to vote for my favorite guy, but it wasn't counted because I didn't
punch the card the whole way through. I
left a hanging
chad.