Palm Beach Ballot Confusion (VIDEO)

The center of voting controversy in 2000, Palm Beach, Florida is back in the news with their 2008 confusing ballot. As Kerry Sanders demonstrated on MSNBC, the ballot is not a simple check box or fill in the dot like most of Florida ballots. Rather, Palm Beach voters have to color in a space to complete an arrow. If they check a box or circle the arrow, their vote is not necessarily counted. He pointed out the lawyers watching the vote tabulation as the confusion set in.

WATCH:

Comments

[whit4brains]

Who designed that ballot? It s.ucks! Without instructions I wouldn't have filled in the center. I probably would have filled in both circles. That is messed up. Whoever approved those should lose their job!

[Inthematrix]

This is the dumbest way of filling out a ballot! Who came up with this asinine idea and what was the benefit to voters?
http://inthematrix.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/president-barack-obama/

[Memnoch]

Settle down. I live in DC, and that's how the ballots are, too. The key is that the sample ballots and the instructions have diagrams to clue voters in. If the ones in PBC don't, they need to get with the program.

[RightWingMarine]

Life is just too confusing for some people. not only are the instructions available in written form but a live person will explain it to them and if they still manage to screw it up the machine spits it back out and makes a terrible noise which summons an election judge who explains everything barney style.

[PuppaX]

Surreal

[booksnmore4you]

I was a precinct clerk in Palm Beach County tonight.

Every voter in my precinct was instructed that they were connecting arrows, and shown an example of how to do it on the privacy sleeve, and samples. Every clerk was trained to do this.

For absentee ballots, NO ONE WHO READ how to complete the ballot would have difficulty. For those with literacy issues, what can one say? How does one create an absentee ballot for those who do not or cannot read basic directions???

[Oonagh]

He has got it.....

[princessofnowt]

WE ARE ON TO YOU- PEOPLE WHO DESIGNED THIS AND OTHER CONFUSING BALLOTS!!!

RUN AND HIDE, AND SIN NO MORE....

BUT YOU SHOULD PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE ALREADY DONE TO THIS COUNTRY.

[Bugboy]

Before you all get a case of the vapors, it was NOT as it was illustrated, two white boxes. It was two BLACK boxes. You connected two BLACK boxes with a BLACK line. Now what's so difficult about that other than you can't make a fracking news story about it?

I voted today, in Palm Beach County. And I was RELIEVED TO SEE NO 'EFFING ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES! So it begs the question: who would complain about Palm Beach County's paper ballots?

[LeeMarie]

The only people who could possibly be impacted by this are absentee voters who didn't follow directions. This ballot design is NOT AN ISSUE for anyone who voted in person. If a voter did not complete the ballot correctly, the election judge would tell them when their ballot was scanned ... for example, "you didn't vote for President - is that right? If so, you need to press the override button so your ballot is accepted". If they say "But I did vote for president!", then the judge would tell them to review their ballot again before submitting.

I will state again, this is the EASIEST and FASTEST ballot format I have ever completed, including punch, touch screen and fill in the dot. This is a non-issue.

[TLV]

Who on God's green earth would invent such a weird ballot? Who?

[DrFrescas]

Idiots, obviously.

[Dianekkdi]

He who would steal Democracy.

My ballot was as simple as a multiple choice test. Fill in the dot.

Anything convoluted and meant to confuse should be illegal and carry penalties.

[princessofnowt]

Not an accident.

Whoever owns the ball controls the game thats played.

[gmlaster]

Where I voted in Chicago, our ballot had a checkbox by each candidate's name. You fill it in, and you're done. Is there something wrong with this design? Is it just too simple? The Palm Beach ballot just looks needlessly complicated, and I'll bet I know why.

[Outofnowhere]

Here on the southside of Chicago we had ballots just like that in the last election. And the way the reporter was connecting the arrow would have disqualified his ballot. A lot of people did that and were told it was wrong, that you could only draw one connecting line, not try to fill in the space by scribbling. It was insane.

[OutragedMom]

This is nonsense. I was a poll watcher in Palm Beach County today. There was no major problem at all. We don't need to make up drama where there is none.

[Jess27]

The most concerning thing about this story is that the same lawyers are involved. If there was no story, they wouldn't be there.

[AngFL]

Agreed. I was a Poll watcher also, not for Palm Beach but in another county in FL and there were no problems. Let's just put this in perspective - we have a state run by predominately by Republicans and they are having much difficulty letting Florida go to the Democrats. Time to let go, and let the people have their day!! Florida is a blue state!

[Ldyandrea]

I also was a poll watcher in Palm Beach County, but in a precinct that was primarily elderly people. There were a number of cases, oddly enough from many younger voters, who either over-voted (accidentally picked more than one candidate in a section), didn't complete the arrow in a section properly (circled it, etc.), or were just plain confused. I honestly believe poll workers need to be trained better on not only how to tell people what they should do to correctly mark their ballots, but what NOT to do as well.

I also noticed that Elderly voters, in particular, were a bit overwhelmed and confused at the fact there were literally 13 different candidates on the ballot for President (Most of them had only ever heard of Obama or McCain). There were just as many of these folks for whom the requirement to have a photo ID was bewildering, as many of them haven't driven in 10 years or more......many of these people were either wheelchair bound, or couldn't walk without the aid of a cane or a walker, btw. But they all take their right and duty to vote very seriously.

In the future, we need some serious initiatives to prepare these older voters, and make sure things are made easier for them to vote properly, rather than making them harder. Voting is a right, not a privilege in this country.

[MANK]

Dumb and proud of it!

[TLV]

Not dumb.

Elderly and manipulated.

[Ldyandrea]

I wouldn't say elderly and manipulated......I'd say elderly, unprepared, and overwhelmed.

[Agnim]

This kind of brazen attempt at voter suppression should not be allowed to happen in ANY state.
The Federal Govment has to set certain minimum standards; so that the disgrace of Republi-con hegemony by theft and deception can be put to rest, and America advances.

[Radarman]

You do know that the election committee, those who designed the ballots, those who run the elections and those who are counting the votes in Palm Beach are all Democrats. I don't think there is a Republican in the group.