It is unbelievable to me that after countless election problems over the years that the same mistakes continue to be made. A study by CALTECH/MIT estimated that 1.5 million votes were not recorded in the 2000 election because of equipment and ballot design problems. Another 3 million votes were lost because of registration issues caused by problems with the registration forms. Since elections are handled at the state and county level there is no consistency of election process and ballot design. This is horribly inefficient, with process and ballot design being reproduced by various election officials all over the nation (some better than others). The lack of consistency also fails voters. As a voter, every time that my local election officials decide to change the ballots, or I move to another area, I have to learn a whole new way to vote. Even a bad ballot would be better than the current situation, if only the ballot were the same everywhere and every election.

From what I understand, it might be extremely difficult to change the laws and make federal standards for election process and ballot design. But as an alternative standards could be developed and ballot designs created that could be adopted by the states on a voluntary basis. If local officials were presented with an option that was proven to be effective and reduced their costs for doing all the work themselves, I would imagine that adoption would be very high.

Visit the following links to learn more about this issue:

http://www.reformelections.org
http://www.vote.caltech.edu/
http://www.designfordemocracy.org