Hello to all,
The reason the registrar's office in Palm Beach county gave for converting
to the new butterfly style ballot was to use a larger font for the type,
and therefore to be easier to read use. Ironic to say the least.
Dawn
Dawn Morales
University of California, San Diego
Department of Psychology
9500 Gilman Drive, MC-0109
La Jolla, CA 92093-0109
-----------------------------------
I was just going to guess that since there are a number of elderly
individuals in that county that they were doing it to increase the font
size. That is really the only way I can think to do that given the
constraints of the size of the ballot. If you put them all on the same side,
the font would have to be smaller. You can't put them on successive pages
because that would be very confusing. Putting them on facing pages allows
you to increase the font size while keeping all of them visible at the same
time. So there were some human factors concerns playing into the design of
the ballot. For an additional irony, the placement of the two major
candidates on the left page and Buchanan on the right page seemed to be
designed in favor of the major parties (no surprise there).
My favorite hyperbole of the day (from the CNN website): "Rep. Robert
Wexler, a Democratic congressman who represents parts of the [Palm Beach]
area, said he witnessed the confusion himself. "I saw it with my own eyes.
Hundreds of people left the ballot box and became hysterical in the parking
lots when they realized they had probably voted for Pat Buchanan," he told
CNN's "Larry King Live."
Rick
Dr. Richard L. Froman
Psychology Department
John Brown University
Siloam Springs, AR 72761
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.jbu.edu/sbs/psych/froman.htm
-----Original Message-----
From: Dawn Morales [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2000 2:06 PM
To: Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D.
Cc: TIPS
Subject: confusing ballot
