1. Small pieces of paper or cardboard produced by punching holes in paper, cards, or ballots.
Usage: Usually plural; often refers to waste material from hole-punch operations
2. Hanging or incompletely detached pieces of paper on a punch card or ballot that may affect counting or readability.
Usage: Became widely known during the 2000 U.S. presidential election in Florida

Examples

• The office floor was covered with chads after the secretary used the three-hole punch.
• The ballot machine produced a pile of chads as it processed the voting cards.
• Hanging chads on the punch cards caused confusion during the election recount.
• The technician carefully removed chads from the card reader to prevent jams.
• Some ballots had partially detached chads that made them difficult to scan.