Be thankful you never had to use one. AFAIK, they're still in use only in New York. Basically they are a mechanical version of a touch screen. You pulled a lever to close the curtain, then you had these little mechanical switches which were supposed to be set up so you couldn't do an overvote (i.e., vote for more than one candidate in a one candidate race) When you threw back the lever, your vote would would be tallied by incrementing a mechanical counter for that candidate and the curtain would open. The technology goes back to the 1890's.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/vote/votingmachine.html
oh I am thankful. Thanks for answering my question.
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