In the wake of the 2000 presidential elections, Americans were introduced to terms such as “butterfly ballot” and “dangling chad” because Florida’s vote was hung up by faulty ballots and antiquated voting machines.
The notorious butterfly ballot required voters to punch holes along a narrow strip of paper next to their choices’ names. The strip was between facing pages of candidates’ names, and the ballot easily confused voters and led to mistakes, and thus to disqualified votes. As well, incomplete punches, which created the infamous dangling chads, also led to disqualified votes.
USA Today reported Monday that Congress has since set aside $3 billion to overhaul the election system, but that may not have solved the problem. The remedy to the infamous butterfly ballot and the dangling chad was the electronic voting machine, but a study released Monday by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law found that ballots continue to be a problem and could leave hundreds of thousands of Americans disenfranchised.
In some cases, the confusing paper ballot designs have merely been transferred to the new machines. Or sample ballots sent to voters don’t look like the ballots used on Election Day.
The study also noted that ballot instructions often confuse voters instead of helping them because of the way they are written.
These problems, nearly eight years after the voting debacle of 2000, shouldn’t exist. The study’s findings are particularly troublesome considering the heightened interest in this fall’s election and the expected crowds at the polls.
The study suggests that state elections officials take a more active role in making sure ballots are easy to understand and use, and that should be a priority this year. Too many ballots have been rejected because of mistakes and that shouldn’t be the case. As the nation learned in 2000, every vote truly does count.
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