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This article has a clearer image of the Florida 2000 ballot: http://www.asktog.com/columns/042ButterflyBallot.html http://www.asktog.com/columns/042ButterflyBal

• nitrogen 10y ago
  That ballot could definitely be designed better even without changing the machine design (e.g. funnels pointing toward the valid hole), but if the arrows were clearly visible on the actual ballots, doesn't that say something about the level of awareness of some of the voters?
  • Retric 10y ago
    Look at this: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5291/5481639542_1e342a5f69_b.jpg https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5291/5481639542_1e342a5f69_b.j... Now, we might get that correct 99% of the time. But, in close elections 1% is meaningful.
    • nitrogen 10y ago
      That does make it look much worse.
  • mikeash 10y ago
    Of course. But so what? Do we want people's votes to be counted differently from what they wanted just because they were less than entirely aware of little details of the ballot design?
    • nitrogen 10y ago
      Naturally in a democratic republic we want every vote to be counted correctly. I was trying to say that we also need to work on our collective awareness, especially around critical things like voting.
      • mikeash 10y ago
        That's fair. Any ideas as to how? I can think of ways to make ballots more understandable, but I have no idea how to get people to pay more attention to them.