A Lesson Not Learned

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/opinion/24thu1.html?ref=opinion

After the controversy over Palm Beach County’s infamous “butterfly ballot” in 2000, there was a lot of earnest talk about improving ballot design so that voters do not miscast their votes. Two election cycles later, a study has found that ballots around the country are still far too confusing and that poor design and instructions have disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters in the last several federal elections.

The problem of badly designed ballots — which affects all kinds of voting technology, from paper ballots to electronic machines — is likely to be particularly acute this fall. There will be many first-time voters, and many jurisdictions have introduced new voting technology.

In the short term, states and localities need to give as much guidance as they can to help voters. In the long term, Congress and the states need to start requiring uniform, well-designed ballots so Americans can be sure that the candidates they choose actually get their vote.

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Congress should require that ballots used in federal elections meet minimum design standards. It should also mandate pre-election usability testing and make funds available for it. States and localities need to draw up better guidelines for how ballots are designed and clearer instructions to voters. They should also publicly report after each election how many votes are lost because of miscast ballots.