Monday, October 27, 2008
New York Times editorial raises alarm over N.C. voting: "this year's butterfly ballot"
In 2000, the election turned on numerous voting irregularities in Florida. In 2004, attention shifted to Ohio, home of the Diebold voting machine manufacturer.
Now, North Carolina is under the national microscope.
In Florida’s “butterfly ballot” debacle of 2000, voters in Palm Beach County were so confused by the odd layout that many appear to have voted for the wrong candidate by mistake. At the time, there was a lot of talk about improving ballot design. Eight years later there are still far too many badly done ballots. North Carolina may have the country’s worst. It is already causing confusion with early voters. And if the presidential race is close, it could change the outcome.
The editorial goes on to explain something that must be repeated, loud and clear: If you vote a straight party ticket, you MUST also vote for a particular choice for president if you want your presidential vote to count.
(The Times notes that N.C. Dems have only themselves to blame for this rule, which was created in the 1960s to preserve Democratic control of state offices even as people began voting for Republican presidential candidates.)
The consequences of North Carolina's badly designed ballot, the Times warns, could be that tens of thousands of presidential votes (for Obama, especially) will be nullified. The complete editorial is here.
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Below is the email sent to all counties, are they all complying? From: Johnnie McLean [mailto:Johnnie.McLean@ncmail.net] Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 5:07 PM To: Directors.boe Cc: ElectTechs.Sboe; Subject: IMPORTANT INFORMATION In order to ensure that all voters receive the information about President/Vice President being voted separately from all other offices you are directed to reproduce the following message (printed four to a page to be cut) and hand/mail to each voter when the ballot/voting equipment is assigned to the voter. Any color paper may be used to duplicate this information. This measure is in addition to the verbal instructions the pollworkers are to provide **************************************************************************************************************** NOTICE: E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by an authorized state official. *************************************************************************************************************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by an authorized county official. If you have received this communication in error , please do not distribute it. Please notify the sender by E-mail at the address shown and delete the original message. [Attachment] PLEASE NOTE: A "straight party" vote does not include the office of president or any nonpartisan race or issue. You must vote for president/vice president separately from the other offices. Nonpartisan offices and issues also must be voted separately. More detailed instructions are on your ballot. For paper ballots, be sure to turn the ballot over. # Background information North Carolina Straight Ticket Confusion - Voting Straight Ticket in North Carolina does NOT include the Presidential contest. NC Coalition for Verified Voting 10/17/08 http://www.ncvoter.net/straightticket.html How Bad is North Carolina’s Ballot Flaw? The Numbers Say, Pretty Bad By Lawrence Norden & Margeret Chen, Brennan Center for Justice 10/21/08 http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0810/S00348.htm
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