On a Saturday in October 2010, a group of Usability in Civic Life volunteered went to five locations to run a flash usability test to learn how New Yorkers marked their new optical scan ballots, especially looking for a kind of error called “double voting” (voting for one candidate under more than one party).
The data they collected supported an effort by the Brennan Center for Justice to improve voter education, election procedures, and how voters are informed about possible errors on their ballots.
A year later, the Board of Elections agreed to:
- Set up the ballot scanners to alert voters when they have double votes
- Post a notice in all the polling places that explains double voting
- Train poll workers, with a consistent procedure
- Report the number of double votes that are recorded
Read more about this project:
- Solving the double vote problem in New York State through design (Civic Designing blog)
- Brennan Center Announces “Double Vote” Settlement, Victory for Minor Parties and Voters (Brennan Center press release)
- Testimony of Lawrence Norden, Brennan Center, Regarding the Introduction of Optical Scan Voting Machines in the 2010 Primary Elections