From NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice today…
By the our count, at least twelve Ohio counties have split the presidential contest over two columns on their paper ballots for this November’s election. This “column split” often confuses voters and results in double voting in the presidential race and an uncounted vote. Today the Brennan Center urged election officials and advocates in Ohio to make sure that voters are aware of the split, and to make sure they vote only once for president.
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As a quick glance will show, it’s no surprise that many voters cast two votes for president when the contest is listed across two separate columns
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As a quick glance will show, it’s no surprise that many voters cast two votes for president when the contest is listed across two separate columns
A sample of the split ballot follows below, and looks like it could result in a lot of spoiled ballots from overvotes, and folks writing in their choice for President in addition to filling in the bubble on the first column. More details from Larry Norden at the Brennan Center here…
Please correct the necessay ballots in Ohio to make the voting for President on one page, so it is fair and equitable. It does make a difference.
Sandy Smith
45202
wow, this is bad overreacting…you’re stupid if you don’t get it and probbaly don’t know enough about the candidates to know who to choose anyways.
I guess I’d have to agree with Taxbax – maybe for a local election there might be a problem, but anyone who thinks that they can vote for two presidents of the united states has no idea what is going on.
Horrible design, and I’m sure Ohio knows it.
All designs for forms/ballots need to cater to the lowest common denominator. This design could cause a lot of confusion for people in all walks of life.
Ohio has a large senior citizen population, and I know this ballot will confuse some of them.
Thanks, Brad, for all you do.
Sweet! a prominent position, link and credit to The Brad Blog for this article from Raw Story. Keep up the great work Brad.
I really don’t see the confusion here.
“For President and Vice-President Please Vote for One (1)”
If you can’t figure that out, you probably aren’t a person who is going to show up to vote on election day anyway. And if you do somehow figure out how to turn the knob to open your front door and end up at your polling place, you probably already have a candidate’s name written on the back of your hand to help you know which bubble to fill in when you get there.
How cold can people be, just come out and say it- “if you can’t figure this out then you must be a #%$^ idiot”.
The people making this mistake aren’t you and me, but they could be my grandparents, easily upset at things like often obnoxious voting processes.
Learn to live life with your shoe on the other foot once in awhile.
There is a cardinal rule in design: THE USER IS NEVER WRONG. If there is an easy way for a user to make a mistake, they WILL. And if they can, the design should be improved so it is harder.
This is stupid design. On the PLUS side (and believe me, given how much theft is going to be done by Rethuglicans across this country this November) most of the people who would support Paul and/or the Constitution Party are probably going to also vote for McCain/Palin, so as far as I’m concerned, let those votes be SPOILED, just as 35K Gore votes were spoiled in Florida in 2000 and 150K Kerry votes were spoiled in Ohio in 2004. At this point, in a war to the death with Turdblossom and his ilk, I’ll take whatever little breaks come our way.
Mal design of ballots is endemic wherever the forces of weevil have influence. Remember the butterfly ballot in Florida in 2000 that led 20,000 JEWS to vote for PAT BUCHANAN!!! Anyone who says that wasn’t deliberate is living in lala land.
This is stupid design. On the PLUS side (and believe me, given how much theft is going to be done by Rethuglicans across this country this November) most of the people who would support Paul and/or the Constitution Party are probably going to also vote for McCain/Palin, so as far as I’m concerned, let those votes be SPOILED, just as 35K Gore votes were spoiled in Florida in 2000 and 150K Kerry votes were spoiled in Ohio in 2004. At this point, in a war to the death with Turdblossom and his ilk, I’ll take whatever little breaks come our way.
If people can’t figure this ballot out, then they can’t see or read. If they can’t see or read, they need to vote some other way besides on a ballot of any type. To everyone else, I think this will be obvious. Honestly, you’d have to be quite mentally challenged to not be able to figure out that column 2 is a continuation of 1. How many voters will this confuse? My guess is, not many.
I know us Buckeyes might not be considered the smartest in the land but I’ve already voted and didn’t have, nor did I see other appearing to have, any obvious problems with the ballot. Most of the seniors I know have long ago decided who they intend to vote for and that will be the only name they will be searching for on the ballot. And if the concern is for lost votes due to seniors confusion please remember that the strongest support for Sen. McCain is among seniors, so if they get confused and the result is a spoiled ballot then I guess that’s just the way it is. Would I be upset if it cost Sen. Obama the election? Sure I would, but I wouldn’t have much sympathy if it were the Republicans who finally had an election stolen from them.
One of the problems is that the names of the candidates don’t remain the same – in some precincts, McCain may be at the top, and in others, Obama may be at the top. Or wherever. Names are constantly switched around, because it’s been proven that people often vote for the first name on the list without reading. Yeah, I know, that’s stupid. This will only happen on paper ballots, however. You cannot overvote on machines, you can only undervote. The machine is not supposed to let you vote for more than one if that is called for. But I urge folks in Ohio to vote absentee and if you are waiting until election day to vote, ASK for a paper ballot. Election workers are not allowed by a directive from the Sec. of State to inform voters they have a choice of paper or machine. Which I disagree with, as an election judge.
This might have been true in the past, but not the case for Ohio in Nov.
Election workers are REQUIRED by a directive from the Sec. of State to inform voters they have a choice of paper or machine by POSTING MANDATORY signage about paper ballots.
All precincts are required to have TWO LINES, one for paper and one for DRE voting. All DRE county precincts are required to have enough paper ballots for 25% of registered voters.
I was prepared to be shocked by an extremely confusing ballot… where is the shock and confusion? How can you suggest that this format would benefit one party over another, unless you are suggesting that voters for a particular party are not smart enough to figure out something that appears to be simple enough. Electronic voting machines would prevent disqualification for double-voting, but some don’t want electronic machines, so this is what you are stuck with.
If you want to be concerned about voter fraud in Ohio or anywhere, how about requiring actual PROOF of residency and identification?
The mistake voters will make is NOT checking the bubble next to Obama/Biden and then voting for Nader or Barr in the write in box, but in mistakenly puting Obama/Biden in the write in box “to make sure.”
They think they are following instructions to “write in” the name of their choice. They don’t realize they are voting twice for the same candidate, and that their ballot will be discarded!
This is just disgraceful. And to say that such people are “stupid” is infuriating rubbish.
Probably some of the people reading this blog would have made the same mistake if they were rushed and in a hurry to get through with their ballot and perhaps confused by all the ballot initiatives (which can be lengthy and contradictory — and in fact are DESIGNED by scumbag political action committees to BE confusing).
It’s a favorite trick of Republicans to try and screw with the voting in every way they can!
In a straight honest vote in which every voter is heard they’d lose every election!
What does this have to do with the two columns? It seems that this problem would occur however a ballot was designed with a write-in choice.
My girlfriend and I just went to the Lake County BOE (just East of Cleveland), and the presidential ballot slot was all contained in one column.
I voted last night on this ballot in Columbus, Ohio and it is not a bad design. It was easy to follow, the instructions that came with it are clear and easy to follow. Anyone who has ever taken a standardized test or filled out any type of government document can complete this ballot easily. It is long, lots of candidates and issues, but with early voting and the time you can take to complete the ballot I see no issues with this ballot. OUR GREAT Secretary Of State, Jennifer Brunner has worked tirelessly to make Ohio’s 2008 Voting Experience an much better one from 2004 and it is working. We in OHIO are not uneducated idiots who cannot follow instructions. I usually agree with this blog, value the work done to highlight people working against the LGBT Community, but this rant is uncalled for.
It could be worse, at least the columns aren’t split so that Obama is on one column and McCain is on another column! That would be a disaster.
Doesn’t anybody double-check the ballot design for flaws like this? It seems to me that ballot officials should have to show the ballot design to both Republican and Democratic party leaders in enough advance time, just so obvious things like this are caught early enough.
What the heck was the problem with simply adding a little bit of text right before the write-in section, like:
“If neither/none of the above/preceding, write in your alternate choice of candidate here”
or something like that? DUH, MORONS.