From: Ingrid.Towey@launchpad.unc.edu (Ingrid Towey)
Subject: Re: Voting Booths
Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 16:07:15 GMT



In article <1992Nov11.045622.23693@microsoft.com> 
bethmo@microsoft.com (Beth Moursund) writes:
>This discussion is interesting to me, because I've never seen 
>anything like the voting booths you're discussing.  In all the 
>places I've voted, you get your ballot (which is a long cardboard
>strip with punchable holes), slide it into a slot in the voting 
>booth, and then use a stylus to punch one hole for each vote. The 
>book next to the ballot lists the candidates/propositions, and 
>clearly marks where to stick the stylus for each.
>
>When finished, you pull the ballot back out, and go drop it in 
>the ballot collection slot yourself.

This thread is also fascinating to me.  I've voted in San Antonio, 
Texas, Houston, Texas, and Durham, North Carolina, over the past 
12 years.  During that time, I've used:

-  a punch ballot like the one described above
-  voting machines with levers (used in Durham until the
   Spring primaries this year) 
-  paper ballots where you draw a line to complete the arrows just 
   like levine@convex.csd.uwm.edu (Leonard P Levine) described:

   >You complete the arrow pointing to the candidate of your 
   >choice which looks like this:
   >
   >joe doaks    <<     <<
   >Sam Spade    <<     <<
   >
   >To vote for Sam, just fill in the line between the Karats.  
    
   However, we completed the arrows using a heavy black marker 
   instead of a pencil, and then we fed our own ballot into the 
   machine that tallied the votes.  The machine showed the
   number of ballots that it had read, and its counter incremented 
   by one after you fed it your ballot (considerably more feedback 
   than the old voting machines).

We used the arrow method when we voted in Durham in this year's 
Presidential election.  My friends in Chapel Hill (which is only a 
few miles from Durham, although in a different county) had a 
ballot where they filled in circles with a Number 2 pencil.  They 
claimed that the arrow ballot is supposed to be *much* faster.  I 
have no idea if it really is, but my precinct was almost deserted, 
and everyone I knew who voted in Chapel Hill had to stand in long 
lines.  My Raleigh friends had to stand in long lines too, but we 
didn't discuss the type of ballot they used.  Short lines in my 
precinct could be explained by any number of factors, but the type 
of ballot could be the reason.

I also wondered when I voted last week if the type of ballot could 
affect _how_ people voted.  I have *heard* that the order of the 
candidate list can affect people's choices, so polling companies 
try to make some allowance for this factor, but I've heard nothing 
about ballot types.  Of course, some types of ballots may be 
inherently more prone to error, and this variance could certainly 
affect outcomes in some elections (especially elections at the 
state and local level).  Has anyone seen any studies on this 
issue?  (You'd think there would have to be some.)

I'm also intrigued that voting methods could be so different 
across the country and even in neighboring counties.  A common 
computer system for voting would certainly make tallying the votes 
faster (although it might be more prone to tampering).

Ingrid K. Towey
Technical Communications and Design Consultant

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