Scumbria, I was working on my ballot-by-mail here in Oregon, and the punch card on this thing was much more confusing than the one in PB County, FL. It's basically a card full of nothing but punch holes with numbers. The Voter's Pamphlet tells you which hole to punch to vote for a specific candidate or measure.
So, for example:
- To vote a Yes on Measure 88, punch out hole 95.
- To vote a No on Measure 88, punch out hole 96.
- To vote a Yes on Measure 95, punch out hole 106.
- To vote a No on Measure 95, punch out hole 107.
Here's a perfect case of a really confusing ballot. Some people would think "Vote for Measure 95, punch hole 95," but if they did that, they'd actually be voting yes on Measure 88. I think I even got tripped up by this once and voted the wrong way on a measure. But I'm not going to take back my vote now, even if the margin on that measure were razor-thin.
But THAT is much more confusing than the "Punch here, idiot" arrows that you find so confusing. And I'm sure you can find badly designed ballots just like Oregon's in use all across the nation. If a few whiny Gore supporters challenge the PB County vote on a mundane thing like ballot design, then Republicans can challenge the vote on a LOT of precincts everywhere, especially those in several swing states that they lost. Then the Democrats challenge on other swing states that they lost, and so on, and so on.
Tenchusatsu |
