August 24, 2004
Design is hard ... but not that hard.
Just when I think I truly hate electronic ballots, I discover something like this
Palm Beach County has introduced an absentee ballot that requires voters to indicate their choices by connecting broken arrows, sparking criticism that it is even more confusing than the infamous "butterfly ballot" used in the 2000 election.
Theresa LePore, the elections supervisor who approved the 2000 butterfly ballot, opted for a ballot design for the Aug. 31 primary that asks voters to draw lines joining two ends of an arrow.
This is mind boggling.
Incidently, the absenteee instructions (and, yes, the url really does end with .pdf.pdf) has this image to clarify.
Apparently, this "tested" as the best choice. Via Crooked Timber. What's wrong with a circle to fill in, like the SATs?
(Incidently, I've used "arrow fill in" ballots that ran about a quarter inch, and thus were essentially boxes. This looks to be more like an inch or so, and as such seems to be good guesswork.)
You may learn more about the innovative designer who has brought this to us at her biography.
August 24, 2004 08:56 PM | TrackBack | in Design