The voters would really have to be pretty
senile* not to be able to figure out
eventually how the "
butterfly ballot" works. At first look the ballot may seem
new, but it has
cleary marked arrows pointing to each of the punch holes for each
candidate.
A picture of the ballot can be found currently at:
http://a388.g.akamai.net/f/388/21/15m/www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/09/election.president/large.ballot.ap.jpg
74
second graders were given a butterfly ballot with
disney characters on them and told to vote for their favorite character. After the
vote was
taken, they checked to see if the
children voted
properly and
all 74 voted properly.
* Exaggerated to make a point
liha: I read the
article, and in
Massachusetts they got rid of the
ballot because the
machine couldnt read the ballots
properly because of the
chads (pieces of paper still
hanging on to the ballot, that shouldn't be there),
not because of
confusion in
voting.
CNN even said "In
Florida, the
problem with the
butterfly is more
complex and, to
date,
mainly has to do with ballot design and
voter error."
And you're comparing the
population of
your county to the
population of the state of Texas? There's a slight difference.
I heard about the test with the second graders, I must admit, on the
Rush Limbaugh show. He is probably
biased, but I do not believe him to be a
liar. Especially on his
show. I also admit, I do not have
specifics on this
test.