Whether a voter can accurately cast a ballot can come down to some very technical issues, and for that reason, we at Votebeat are used to going down some really narrow — but important — rabbit holes.
For example, I’ve been looking into an issue lately that’s been bubbling up in Wisconsin: whether states require their county and local election officials to give voters a uniform set of instructions for absentee ballots. (I’m great at parties!)
It turns out the answer to that question is very important for your right to vote: In some states, a lack of required uniform instructions on how to cast and return absentee ballots is leading to voter confusion and sometimes disenfranchisement, disability and voting advocates say.
I was surprised to find out that in Wisconsin, the state election agency has a set of uniform instructions, but local clerks aren’t explicitly required to use them. In Arizona and Michigan, by contrast, state law requires election officials to include specific instructions on mail ballot envelopes.
Such standardization became increasingly common after the 2000 presidential election, said John Lindback, an election administration consultant who used to head the Electronic Registration Information Center, a consortium that helps check voter rolls for accuracy.
In that election, a misleading “butterfly” ballot design caused thousands of Democratic voters in Florida to mistakenly select Reform Party presidential candidate Pat Buchanan instead of Democrat Al Gore. The ensuing fight over that tight Florida contest prompted a nationwide movement toward better ballot design and more specific voting instructions, Lindback said.
The instructions now required in many states tell voters how to fill out and return their ballots. But there are significant differences in how those rules play out across the country, Lindback said….