Voters use special pens to connect arrows instead of punching holes.
But state Board of Elections Chairman Roger Begin yesterday called for a task force to study the state's election laws in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Florida election standards. Begin said he was sufficiently unnerved by the peculiar circumstances of this year's mayoral race in Johnston that he sees a need for the review. The Johnston race, Begin said, could have wound up in court on the same kind of constitutional issues that proved pivotal in the U.S. Supreme Court's Florida recount ruling. The court stopped the Florida recount because the state lacked uniform standards that local officials could use to determine voter intent. Without uniform standards, the court ruled, the recount violated constitutional guarantees to equal protection under the law.