"Better Ballots" from the Brennan Center

The Brennan Center for Justice has released a new report on ballot design, by Lawrence Norden, David Kimball, Whitney Quesenbery, and Margaret Chen. From the summary:

The notorious butterfly ballot that Palm Beach County, Florida election officials used in the 2000 election is probably the most infamous of all election design snafus. It was one of many political, legal, and election administration missteps that plunged a presidential election into turmoil and set off a series of events that led to, among other things, a vast overhaul of the country's election administration, including the greatest change in voting technology in United States history.

Yet, ironically, eight years after the 2000 election, and billions of dollars spent on new voting technology, the problems caused by poor ballot design have not been fully and effectively addressed on a national level. Year in and year out, we see the same mistakes in ballot design, with the same results: tens, and sometimes hundreds, of thousands of voters disenfranchised by confusing ballot design and instructions, sometimes raising serious questions about whether the intended choice of the voters was certified as the winner.....

You can find the full report here and some examples of ballot design flaws here. It's good to see some attention devoted to this important but underexamined area.

Posted by tokajid at July 21, 2008 08:56 AM