Singapore today enjoys a reputation for being a “smart nation,” but the country’s IT history stretches further back than usually acknowledged. By 1965 itself, computing machines were already indispensable for the working of the Singapore government. Core state functions ranging from the census, social welfare, taxation, and elections relied on the information processing capabilities of these devices. By following the story of one particular machine, the Powers-Samas tabulator, we can track how the expansion of administrative power in the middle of the century relied crucially on the adoption of computing technology.