A new report from the Brennan Center for Justice concludes that in 2010, tens of thousands of votes in New York did not count because of errors — errors that can be easily caught or prevented to ensure that ballots are marked according to the voters’ intent.
They are overvotes–when a voter selects too many candidates for an office. Electronic marking systems can simply prevent this from happening. For paper ballots, scanners can notify voters of the problem. Too often, however, the error messages aren’t clear enough.
This report demonstrates how this problem disproportionately affected the state’s poorest communities, suggests commonsense reforms, and examines national implications.
- Design Deficiencies and Lost Votes – Larry Norden and Sundeep Iyer, The Brennan Center for Justice Published December 5, 2011
- Usability Matters – Even with Paper Ballots – CivicDesigning blog, February 2, 2012