Re: Ovals positioned back to back on ballots.

[Guy Lancaster <glanca@dieboldes.com>]

> Jefferson County has used No. 2 pencils (with no eraser -
> attached to the voting booth) with no apparent bleed
> through or problem eith reading. Does anyone know of a
> problem in using this high tech device?

  There is a risk of an increased number of undefined (or
unread) marks for voters that don't fill in the oval.  With
a big felt marker, a mark of any kind near the center of the
oval will generally be read correctly.  A pencil mark is
less defined.

  Of course if the voter training has worked well, then this
is not an issue and it's simply a matter of the work that it
takes to fill in the ovals.  :-)

  One issue that I haven't seen in this discussion is the
matter of write-in votes.  These are not used in Canada and
thus Greg is very successful using big fat markers.
However, writing a candidate's name in the small space
provided would not produce a readable result using a big
marker.  Thus, for elections in the U.S., a smaller marker
is required.  As Ken pointed out, normal ballot layouts do
not have voting positions lining up from front to back
because the columns are offset.  However, the write-in
positions span the block and can often pass over a voting
position on the other side.

  Thus modifying the system to check for lined up ovals will
only be effective when people are doing odd things in ballot
layout like using different block widths between front and
back or left justified ovals in some races and right
justified in others.  This would not help for write-in
positions and the only thing that would help there would be
do used a double space layout that's offset from front to
back.  This is not likely to be acceptable.

  So then the only "solution" is to prevent bleed-through
and read-through (ballot translucency) problems.  This is a
matter of selecting a combination of paper stock and marking
instrument appropriate for the environment and situation.
Without write-ins, a big marker on any stock should be
fine.  With write-ins in a dry environment, using a water
based marker on a reasonably dense stock should work.
Write-ins in humid environments are the most difficult.
Markers should be alcohol based and should be used with a
heavy stock tested to resist bleed-through. If there are
still problems, then some effort to avoid laying write-in
lines over ovals may be worthwhile or else use either
pencils or ball-point pens.

  Perhaps the ideal would be to use two marking
instruments.  How about an oval shaped self-inking stamp for
the ovals and a ball-point pen for the write-ins???
Ball-point pens can be customized quite inexpensively and
these could be passed out as rewards for voting.  ;-)

               Guy