hanging chad
4
9.5
- noun
- /ˈhæŋɪŋ tʃæd/
- Jargon
:
chad colgante
- To avoid issues with hanging chads, the polling station switched to a new ballot system that fully detaches votes.
- hanging chads, dimpled
- ballots and hanging chads
- hanging chad, dimpled
Examples
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One thing about paper ballots, when Florida went to punch cards, they appear to have handed out styluses with short stems in heavily Democratic precincts, and we were treated to hanging chads because the holes were not punched all the way out by the short stylus, no matter how hard the voter pressed.
Blog text (2) -
The five-week drama of counting ballots, hanging chads, and legal appeals took a toll on the country.
Blog text (11) -
We only had hanging chads here in Florida.
Blog text (5) -
Remember the hanging chads in Florida affected us!
Blog text (24) -
But I live in Florida, the land of the hanging chads, and after that mess, I realized elections could come down to my vote.
Blog text (27) -
It should be the responsibility of the voter to ensure there are NO HANGING CHADS!
Blog text (5) -
There are no hanging chads or butterfly ballots, but there is still a question mark looming over the map of Florida," Kendall Coffey said.
Blog text (32) -
The election officials had to manually count the ballots due to the many hanging chads that caused confusion.
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In the chaotic aftermath of the election, voters worried about hanging chads affecting the final results.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'hanging' (suspended/still attached) with 'chad' (a tiny paper piece from hole punching): a chad that is hanging is a piece not fully detached. This is a literal adjective+noun composition following ordinary English composition patterns, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The noun hanging chad comes from old punch-card ballots, where a small square of paper called the chad was meant to fall out but sometimes stayed attached and was hanging by one corner. Because the piece did not fully come off and could make the voter's choice 'unclear', the term now means that small stuck piece of paper that can spoil a vote.