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To: EnricoPalazzo who wrote (8012)	11/10/2000 2:41:00 AM
From: Uncle Frank	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22706

>> these were people who were used to voting the same way for decades (they were used to voting this way because florida law stipulates that it's the way ballots must be designed). Curious; I've been led to believe that the butterfly format has been used in PB since the 1996 elections. Is that not the case? cuf

To: EnricoPalazzo who wrote (8012)	11/10/2000 2:53:24 AM
From: Mike Buckley	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22706

ardethan, there is a five-minute time-limit on filling out your ballot in Palm Beach county Please provide the source of that information. My understanding is that some precincts were trying to maintain a five-minute limit, but I don't believe it was done so legally. --Mike Buckley

To: EnricoPalazzo who wrote (8012)	11/10/2000 11:05:24 AM
From: tekboy	Respond to of 22706

this was a monstrous usability bug a friend who works with Gallup passed on this take... ctb/A > From: Gallup Announcement > Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2000 4:28 PM > To: Gallup All > Subject: Impact of survey design > > Well if there ever was an example of how a survey design can have an > impact on results.... TODAY is the day!! > > The Palm Beach County ballot has the Presidential election hanging in the > balance all because of a bad survey format. > > If you haven't seen it on TV today, the ballot form in Palm Beach County, > Florida was very confusing and it is possible that many voters > accidentally voted for Buchanan rather than Gore. > > The political commentary around this issue today is amazing! The next > President of our nation may very well be determined in Palm Beach County > depending upon what they decide to do with the results from these ballots. > There are protestors demanding a chance to vote again - Palm Beach > residents want their opinions to be heard correctly and their vote to be > accurately recorded. > > This may be the biggest example in history of the importance of a good > user-friendly survey format. The nation is learning today what Gallup > already knows....that you can never underestimate the impact and the > importance of a properly designed survey format (and other quality > procedures for processing paper forms). > > If the government had utilized Gallup's Dillman conformance guidelines on > their ballot forms we might know by now who the next President will > be......but then the news today would not have been as interesting :)

To: EnricoPalazzo who wrote (8012)	11/10/2000 11:15:21 AM
From: tekboy	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 22706

The law is the law, and must be enforced fairly and faithfully. To suggest otherwise is to undermine the very underpinnings of our society. nice sentiment for the Gov. Dept. Soph. Tutorial (which I used to teach), but if you supplemented your second-tier undergraduate education with a first-tier legal one down in CT, you might be more of a legal realist... (had to put in something like that to keep the Mudgeness of the thread on track!) The problem with your view is that it refuses to accept competing goods. Yes, the PB ballot might have violated the law because of its arrangement (wonderful long pause about that by the FL officials during their press conference yesterday). BUT--do you have any doubt that there were countless similar minor illegalities across the country yesterday? If we redo this one without redoing the others, the result is even more unfair, it seems to me. Moreover, if the Gore people take this to the courts and try to win on lawyers' points, then the ultimate election result will have about as much popular legitimacy as the OJ trial result. As for the confusingness of the ballot, your points are valid, but at this point it has to be a judgment call not about whether it was confusing but about just how confusing it was. For me, the fact that 95% of the voters in the county figured it out combined with the arrows in question and the pre-election efforts to explain things tip the scales in favor of letting things stand. ctb/A

To: EnricoPalazzo who wrote (8012)	11/10/2000 9:28:03 PM
From: Uncle Frank	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22706

>> Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, most people don't realize that there is a five-minute time-limit on filling out your ballot in Palm Beach county. If that was your most important point, I'd suggest you get off the soap box, because it simply isn't true. I checked with my mom, who lives smack in the middle of Palm Beach County, and there was no time limit posted, none implied, and no pressure on folks to hurry their vote. To the contrary, there were friendly faces from the neighborhood available to help clear up any confusing issues. I think you may be guilty of taking everything you hear at face value, probably because you yourself are a sincere, honest person. Well guess what? You are dealing with cunning, manipulative people on both sides of the issue that will gladly lie their teeth off to gain an advantage. I'm sorry about this, but I'm going to have to put you in the Mudge Penalty Box. Five minutes for rumor mongering. cuf@killthezebras.com