"Bubble Trouble on the Ballot: A complicated system and confusing ballot may have spoiled the vote for many independents."

The LA Times has posted this oped of mine. It begins:

Election administrators have a tough job. They need to pull off a massive voting and vote-counting effort in a short time frame with a limited budget and a slew of underpaid poll workers. Some hiccups are inevitable. At my polling place Tuesday morning, for example, the machine that scans ballots for errors wasn't working; a technician was "on the way." A poll worker simply put my ballot and others in an envelope, and I left with the confidence that it would be properly handled and eventually counted.

Still, some problems can be avoided with a little common sense. And the "bubble trouble" fiasco in Los Angeles County -- which led many independent voters to cast ballots that may not be counted in the Democratic primary -- is simply inexcusable.

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According to today's Times news story, "election workers had identified about 189,000 votes cast by nonpartisans in Los Angeles County. About half of those people marked a bubble indicating they were voting in a party primary, which leaves more than 94,000 ballots in doubt. That number is expected to rise as the count continues, Logan said."
For additional amusement, check out the actual instructions posted on the LA county website. Notice how the sample American Independent party ballot is mistakenly described as the Democratic ballot. As I conclude in my oped, "Designing a ballot that lets people cast a vote that actually counts needs to be a top priority. Running elections is a tough business, but it is not rocket science."

Posted by Rick Hasen at February 7, 2008 09:31 AM