American Views Abroad

 
I've completed my Ohio absentee ballot. There's a set of instructions and then the ballot itself. Both are a bit overwhelming at first. There are more boxes on the ballot than you need (228 in all), and the instructions have printing of different sizes, some upper case some mixed case, some in bold telling you what to do and what not to do, most of it boxed in with lines of varying thickness. So it takes a moment to orient. Also, it's a punch card, and I haven't seen one of those since the early 80's. But once you settle down and read through everything carefully there should be no problems. I think it's a fair ballot. At least it doesn't seem to be biased towards any one party. There's also an instruction to remove the chads, which I dutifully did. Here they are:




There are of course mistakes that could be made if the instructions are not followed. If you try to act without reading the instructions you might think the first page of the instruction brochure is the actual ballot and make your selection directly on the brochure. Another source of error might of course be punching out the wrong box, or chad, as they are now known. Here's a portion of the ballot to help make my point:




Let's say you are supposed to punch out 101. First you look for 101. You find it. Under it is a line. Under the line is a dot. You see this all at once. What I remember from my psychology of perception classes is that people tend to perceive separate objects as belonging together if they are near each other. Anyhow, the dot you see first near the 101 belongs to 102. Not to 101. It isn't immediately obvious that the dot above 101, towards the top of the box is the one to punch out. So on this ballot you have sets of a number, a line, and a dot, and it's easy to see them as belonging together, although they don't. So it could be confusing. It's almost a reflex action to punch out the wrong box because you keep wanting to, it being closer to the number. If you follow the instructions exactly it does explain properly what to do. But it still seems a little like an IQ test. I hope I passed.

Will this potential source of error cause someone to unintentionally vote for someone they did not wish to vote for? In the case of Bush vs. Kerry: probably not. Bush is 7 and Kerry is 9. The worst that could happen is a person might intend to vote for Bush and select 8, thereby invalidating the vote. But the same thing might happen if trying to vote for Kerry and selecting 10 instead of 9. In each case, this error is a no-vote. So its balanced. Well, unless voters of a particular candidate turn out to have a lower average IQ. They would tend to make more mistakes thereby invalidating their choice.

Concerning the Senator and Congressman a mistake could be made, as they are consecutive numbers on the punch ballot. But the mistakes would be balanced for each party. In the case of the Senator, the Republican is listed second and would receive unintentional votes if this type of error is made. The two candidates for Congress are also consecutive numbers, but the Democrat is listed second, thereby receiving the advantage, if there is one. This is all a result of alphabetical listings, but it seems to work out fair and balanced, to repeat a catchphrase which may be so overused nowadays that it means nothing.

Conclusion: An easier ballot to fill out would have the candidate's name right next to where the hole has to be made. But until the easy ballot exists: read the instructions of your (absentee) ballot through carefully until you understand them. If they are confusing, ask for help. It is your responsibility to fill out your ballot correctly. If you take your right to vote seriously you owe it to yourself to be sure your vote is not wasted by a silly error. Don't guess anything. Follow the instructions to the letter.

Anyhow, I'll send off my ballot today by express mail because according to the instructions the ballot must be received by November 2nd. Nowhere does it say "postmarked by". This will of course be a disadvantage to the candidate (if any) who has more support among absentee voters.

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Here's a short follow-up to yesterday's post: I've heard from two friends in Ohio with some information:
1) It's not a good idea to click "unsubscribe" on spams, as some spammers take this as a validation that the e-mail exists, and then spam more. It's better to register with the spam reporting service: www.spamcop.net.
2) The Republican party uses mailing lists, and this could be how they got my information. I had included along with the registration a business card containing my e-mail address. So maybe this was entered into some mailing list database. My registered letter was received on October 6th. The spams began on the 7th. You recall, I registered as a Republican because my first registration, as a Democrat, got lost. I didn't want to take any chances.
- posted by Fred @ 5:25 AM