2004 Rube Goldberg Machine Contest
National Challenge: Select, Mark, and Cast an Election Ballot in 20 or More Steps
I can't say it any better than this excerpt from the official website:

The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest brings the ideas of Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Rube Goldberg's "Invention" cartoons to life. Named after, and inspired by the cartoonist Reuben Lucius Goldberg, this Olympics of Complexity is designed to pull students away from conventional problem-solving and push them into the endless chaos of imagination and intuitive thought

Learn more by visiting the Rube Goldberg contest page.