It's because in this scenario the span represents the clickable area:

![screen shot 2014-05-16 at 5 16 29 pm](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/3095/3003604/a8408422-dd58-11e3-9cd4-cc9333dca584.png)

I believe the best explanation is that I am using the spans to represent the various columns for the buttons and the whole column should be clickable (tappable). I'll look and see if I can optimize this in the visual overhaul.