 |
 |
For the full story: http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/butterflyballot001130.html By Amanda Onion Nov. 30 — Voters have complained they're confusing. Lawyers have argued it in court. Now a Canadian scientist is publishing a study to try and prove the infamous "butterfly ballot" leads to errors. "The morning after the election I was drinking my coffee and watching TV when they flashed an image of the butterfly ballot," says Robert Sinclair, a Canadian psychologist at the University of Alberta. "I saw right away there was a serious design problem." Creating Canadian Equivalent Since the Canadian elections were only 20 days away, Sinclair called his former graduate adviser, Melvin Mark, a psychologist at Pennsylvania State University, and the two designed a quick study. They decided to poll Canadians on their preferences among the candidates for Prime Minister using ballots with single columns and others with the two-column design. His results, which will be published next Thursday in the journal Nature, show that more than 7.5 percent of those using a ballot designed like the so-called butterfly ballot, intended to vote for one candidate, but mistakenly voted for another. The study addresses alleged problems in the two-column butterfly ballot which was used in Palm Beach County, Florida. More than 19,000 ballots in the Florida county were thrown out when machines determined that voters had marked votes for two candidates. Others have argued that Reform Party Candidate Pat Buchanan received a disproportionately high number of votes in the county because of the ballots. just me, Marjorie 68/58/55 ********************************************************************************************* Shortcut to Mail Options click here: http://parkinsons-information-exchange-network-online.com/mailopt.html Home of John Cottingham's PIENO. Way to go John!!!