hanging chad
A chad is the portion of paper that is removed when paper is hole-punched; therefore, a hanging chad is the piece of paper that occasionally fails to fully separate from the paper when it is not fully punched through, and instead remains partially in place. Famously, the term was used in the 2000 presidential election because some states used hole-punching to indicate voting preference on their ballots. Election counters had difficulty determining votes because voting machines could not easily read the hanging chads.
Florida, in particular, had significant difficulties counting ballots because the state's counting methods struggled with hanging chads. Their difficulty culminated in a manual recount ordered by Florida state law and was upheld by the Florida Supreme Court. This sparked controversy because whichever candidate won Florida would win the election. The controversy during the 2000 election culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), in which the then-presidential candidate George W. Bush sought to end the manual recounts and overrule the Florida Supreme Court. Ultimately, Bush prevailed, and the election was called in his favor. See: Bush v. Gore for additional information.
[Last reviewed in April of 2026 by the Wex Definitions Team]
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