At the time of the election, we heard from people who felt disenfranchised by the ballot itself — voices like the voter who told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, “It was so hard to tell who and what you were voting for. I couldn’t figure it out, and I have a doctorate.” There were also those with disabilities, who find polling places a maze of hazards, and those who faced other challenges simply casting their vote.
These events were not triggered by corruption, but by a well-intentioned official without the usability guidelines she needed to do her job well. The morning after the election, Theresa LaPore, the designer of the infamous butterfly ballot said, “I was trying to make the ballot more readable for our elderly voters in Palm Beach County. I was trying to do a good thing.”
Related articles
Palm Beach Ballot Design Problems Could Have Been Avoided, Say Usability Professionals
UPA Press Release (11/14/2000)
Getting Your (Intended) Vote to Count
A summary from Human Factors International reviewing the human factors issues in voting. (May 2003 newsletter)
An Electoral Butterfly Effect by Sinclair, Mark, Moore, Lavis and Soldat. In Nature, Vol 408, pages 665-666. Available online with subscription at http://www.nature.com
Voting for Usability: A Backgrounder on the Issues – Whitney Quesenbery’s talk at Tech*Comm2001
The Tabulator: Is Florida’s 2000 Vote on the Butterfly Ballot Designer’s Mind as November Approaches? You Can Count on It
Joel Achenbach (Washington Post, May 23 2004)
Holes in Punch-Card System Noted Long Ago
An overview of voting technology. “Votomatic ballots are now famously vulnerable to error – but cheap. 12 years after an expert urged that they be banned, they made history.” (USA Today, 3/7/2001)
From Ballots to Cockpits, Questions of Design
UPA President, Elizabeth Rozensweig, and Don Norman comment on design, usabilty and elections. (New York Times, 1/23/2001)
“The Usability of Punched Ballots” – Bob Bailey, Human Factors International. Includes a calculation of the number of usablity test participants necessary to find the problems with the ‘butterfly ballot’ as well as an explanation of the math behind the calculation.
“Basis for Alternate Interpretations of the Palm Beach Ballot” – Kevin Fox . This author concluded that ‘there are at least three clear cognitive paths by which voters in Palm Beach, Florida could have miscast their intended vote for Gore as a vote for Buchanan, or as a double vote for both Gore and Buchanan.’
“Ballot Usability in Florida” – Dan Bricklin’s web log